A Tale of Two Kings
by Her Sweetness
Summary: They've done it. Marik and Malik have finally succeeded in World Domination! But with Yami and Yugi desperate to dethrone them... how long will it last? FINISHED!
1. A very important job

**Sweetness:** Thank you for waiting. I am here to introduce my latest Marik and Malik fanfic. Without further ado… here it is!

A Tale of Two Kings

Chapter 1:

Marik and Malik are common knowledge. In the city of Domino and overseas, they have become the definition of the word: failure. Time and time again they have tried to succeed in world domination. In more ways than one they have failed in their little quest to the top. And right there, making sure they don't prevail, are Yami and Yugi. Every time, they foil Marik and Malik's plan to get their hands on the millennium puzzles.

But one day, Marik had an epiphany. Something hit him like a lightning bolt and he had to try out his new plan with his hikari. It hadn't occurred to either one of them that such a simple plan could ever work. Although Malik was skeptical, Marik decided they had to try it out. A new plan… called the 'Grab and run' tactic.

The next day as Yami and Yugi were walking down the street, Marik and Malik stalked their pray.

"Marik, this isn't going to work." Malik said as he and his yami were creeping in the bushes, "Let's just go home."

"No! Now be quiet, here they come…"

When Yami and Yugi approached the bush they were hiding in, Marik and Malik jumped out and grabbed the millennium puzzles from around the necks of their foes.

"Hey!" Yugi screamed, but it was too late. Marik and Malik had already run into their house and locked the door.

About two months went by since that day and the world had met with disaster. North America and Japan were the first two nations to fall under the power of Marik and Malik. Soon after, Australia and South America went, too.

The day after Marik and Malik took over America and Japan, Yami and Yugi disappeared. It's not as if Marik didn't look for them, it's just that they, along with some other people totally slipped away from the surface. Meaning Marik's large search parties couldn't find them anywhere.

Marik soon decided that he didn't care where Yami and Yugi ended up. As long as they didn't come back to bother him or his new empire.

Domino, or what used to be Domino was now the new capitol of the world. Marik and Malik didn't really feel like moving so they decided to stay right there and rule the world. But as a gift to themselves, they had a huge castle built to overlook the entire city. With metal and gold covering every corner of the thick walls and floors, it was perfect for Marik's obsession with shiny things.

Marik was having the time of his life. He was too giddy to describe. Every day he'd run around the castle, terrorizing the prisoners or making new laws to oppress the people. Sometimes, he'd sit on his throne and shoot arrows out the window at the guards down below. Usually he'd never hit one, but to him, it was fun just to try.

Malik was enjoying this as well. Although there was one thing that he was a little upset about…

"I don't understand why I have to be _co_-King of the world!" Malik cried from his throne. It was right next to Marik's throne, but a tad bit smaller.

"Are you still going on about that?!" Marik rolled his eyes, "Get over it, Malik. I'm King, and you, my little assistant, are co-King."

"But why?!"

"Because it was my plan to grab the millennium puzzles and run! You're the one who wanted to go home, remember?"

"No..." Malik pouted.

"Co-King, Malik... That's a very important job."

"No it isn't! I feel so… so ashamed! It's like saying I'm not good enough to be King, so you stuck a 'co' in front of my title! How degrading!"

Marik ignored his hikari's whining and snapped his fingers. Almost immediately, a man dressed in only a pair of pants appeared ten feet in front of Marik and Malik, bowing, "Yes, Master Marik?"

"Do we have an update on our search for Yami and Yugi?"

"N-no, sir. Not yet." He muttered, "But we're still looking, sir! I mean, it's only been-"

"Way too long!" Marik stood up, "You'd better find those two if you want to live out the week!"

"Y-yes, Master Marik! We will find them!" He then left the large room.

When the man was gone, Marik sat back down and Malik asked his yami, "What was all that about, Marik? I mean, didn't you give up on looking for them two weeks ago?"

"Yeah, I did. But it's fun to threaten people's lives like that. Every day I call him in here and he quivers in fear before me. If he was smart, he'd know that I'm kidding."

"Maybe he does know. And he's just pretending to be afraid to fit your ego."

"What?! How dare he imply that I have an ego! Off with his head!"

"Marik!"

"Relax. I was just kidding." Marik grinned, "You know, Malik… you really should lighten up! You're co-King of the world. Enjoy life."

"How can I enjoy life when you're always yanking my chain?!"

"Aw, come on. You know you're enjoying this. It's the life you've always wanted, right? Look around you, Malik." Marik got up and pointed out the large window, "You've got the world at your feet. Anything you say goes. No one has any choice."

"Hmm… I guess."

"Observe." Marik called out the window, "Hey guards! See that man in the yellow shirt?! Kill him!"

Below there was a loud scream and then a guard yelled back, "Your wish has been granted Master Marik!"

Malik ran to the window next to his yami, "Huh?! Marik! I mean… what the?!"

"Power, Malik. That's pure power."

"Marik, why did you kill that man in the yellow shirt?!"

"I wanted to prove that anything you want could be done. _And_ I don't like the color yellow."

Malik walked out of the room, "You are insane!" he called before leaving.

'Poor Malik,' Marik thought, 'It's going to take him a while to get used to this new lifestyle. He's just not adapting as well as I thought he would. Oh well, I'll train him to act the way he should.'

-----------------------------------

Meanwhile, Malik was aimlessly walking in the castle somewhere blowing off steam, 'I can't believe him. Killing people like that… I mean, I could understand it if the guy was wearing a pink shirt… but there's nothing wrong with yellow! I like yellow! I guess he's going to kill me next!'

He calmed down and looked outside at a few of the guards surround the back wall, 'Like we have real power over these people… I mean they wont do _everything_ I ask… will they?'

Malik started to get curious. So, he called out to a guard, "Hey there."

He turned around and saluted, "Master Malik! Hello, sir!"

"G-go jump in that lake!" Malik ordered, a little bit uncertain.

"Yes, sir!" Like a flash, the man dived head first into the lake. The other men asked if Malik wanted them to do the same. Malik said yes, and they obediently jumped in.

Soon, Malik began to realize the true extent of his power. He grinned to himself and looked at the millennium puzzle hanging around his neck, 'There might be something to this co-King of the world thing after all.'


	2. AMA meeting

A Tale of Two Kings

Chapter 2:

Believe it or not, Seto Kaiba was the only other seat of power. Because of the way he helped Marik and Malik with past schemes to rule the world, Marik let Kaiba keep Kaiba Corp and his big mansion. But Malik was constantly whining to his yami about dreams he'd been having. He dreamt that Kaiba would someday get tired of them ruling everything and that he'd take the millennium puzzles. Marik seriously doubted this but did something about it nonetheless. He took Kaiba's little brother, Mokuba, and put him in a cell somewhere in the castle. Kaiba didn't take this very well, but he couldn't do very much about it.

But Seto Kaiba wasn't the only person who was free. Little did Marik and Malik know, Yugi and Yugi were alive and plotting against them.

Since that day when half the world was put under the power of the two Egyptians, Yami and his hikari went into hiding with some of the others that weren't captured.

Sadly, that was a very small number against Marik's _billions_. Only six of the original gang was left. Yami, Yugi, Joey, Mai, Ryou and Bakura. Marik managed to capture Tristan, Otogi, and Serenity. Actually, Marik wanted Bakura to join his side because they were pretty good friends. But Ryou forbad Bakura to join the side of evil.

In order to keep out of Marik's site, Yami, Yugi and the others had to go under ground. They were living in an old building that had sunk below the surface when Marik took over Domino. It was very uncomfortable, and small. But it suited their purposes.

The only reason they were eluding Marik's guards and trying desperately to stay alive was because they needed to overthrow Marik. Ryou thought it would be cute if they had a name for themselves. So, to please him, Yugi named there little organization the Anti Marik Association. Also known as the AMA.

"Okay, okay you guys!" Yugi shouted over the noise of his friends' chattering, "We need to come to order!"

They started to quiet down and then looked at Yugi, who was standing by the blackboard at the front of the small room.

Yugi motioned for his yami to come up and speak. "Okay." Yami said, "We can't keep out of Marik's reach for much longer. This is starting to get dangerous. Yesterday, as I'm sure you know, Otogi was captured by Marik's guards while on his way back here from the grocery store. Now, does anyone have any idea _what_ he was doing out of the building?!"

Everyone looked at Joey, who was looking really guilty. "…"

"Joey?" Yugi asked, "Something you want to tell me?"

"…Eh… All right, all right! I confess! I did it! I sent Otogi to the store to get me pudding!"

"I knew he was insane." Mai whispered to Ryou, "This is just the beginning."

Yami shook his head, "Joey… we have food here. I mean, we need everyone we can get to be on our side. We can't go around sacrificing people by making them go to the grocery store to buy pudding!"

"What kind of pudding did you want?" Yugi asked.

Yami glared at his light, "Yugi, it doesn't matter-"

"Chocolate…" Joey answered, licking his lips. "Delicious, creamy, soft…"

Everyone started to drool and their eyes started to roll back in their heads. Yami slammed his hand down on the blackboard to get their attention, "Hey! We need to focus. Joey, no more trips out side of the building! That was dangerous! If they would have followed Otogi back here, they could have captured all of us! Then where would the world be?"

Joey lowered his head, "He already took Serenity… if he took me, too, then we'd be together again."

"Hey, no! You can't think like that!" Yugi put his hand on Joey's shoulder, "You want to be with your sister on the outside, free. Not in Marik's dungeon. If we hold on a little bit longer, I know we'll win!"

"That's right," Ryou added, "You've just got to have a little faith."

"…I-I guess you're right." Joey smiled wistfully, "We just need to hang on a little longer. Then we can free my sister."

"But how can we stop him?" Mai asked, "We're out manned 300 million to one! Marik and Malik have the millennium rods and puzzles! They're about to take over Africa, and after that Asia is all that's left! It all seems so hopeless."

"Thanks for the negative side, Mai…" Yami said. "Now, to lift your spirits, I shall give you the positive side."

Everyone looked expectantly at him.

"Well…" he thought for a minute, "We're all still alive."

Bakura groaned, "I should of joined Marik when I had the chance…"

"No, Bakura!" Ryou shook his finger at his yami, "We're here to support the good side. Not the upcoming apocalypse."

"Have you seen the world lately?! The apocalypse is already here! The sky is black… the ground is muddy and full of cracks… and Oprah died last week! These are all signs of the end!"

"Yeah, I was wondering about that Oprah thing…" Joey said.

"None of that matters!" Yami sat on the floor with the rest of them, "We're going to beat Marik and Malik and nothing is going to stop us."

"That's why we called this meeting." Yugi added, "Because today we're going to put our heads together and find a way to beat Marik. Any ideas?"

It was quiet for a minute.

Mai stretched her arms, "Well, couldn't we go to Asia and hide there until we figure this out? You said it yourself; it's getting too dangerous to stay so close to Marik. I mean, we're ten miles away from the castle."

"How could we get to Asia?!" Ryou asked, "I mean, one of us got caught just going to the store."

"Mai, I don't think that's going to work." Yami said, "Anymore ideas?"

There was another moment of silence.

"Ah… I've got it! I've got it!" Joey jumped up and shouted, "I know how to beat Marik!"

"Really?! What is it, Joey?!" They all asked with excitement.

"All we have to do is go outside and get captured! Then we'll get taken to Marik's castle!"

"…" everyone was quiet.

"When they put us in a cell or whatever, we can sneak out and find Marik! See? It's easier to get in the castle that way!"

"…Are you nuts?!" Mai and Bakura shouted.

"It's a good idea!" Joey retorted, "We'll be in the castle and we can sneak out!"

"Joey," Yugi sighed, "What if we get executed before we even get to the cells? I mean, Marik could order us dead on the street. There's no guarantee that we'd even make it to the castle."

"But it's a shot!"

"Yes, it is." Yami nodded, "But I'm not willing to give in to Marik so easily."

"I guess you're right. That would only give that slime-ball more satisfaction." Joey sat back down, "So, who has any other ideas?"

Yugi thought for a while. "Hey, I got it!"

"What?" they asked.

"We could call Kaiba."

"…Huh?!" Mai, Ryou, and Joey were shocked, "K-Kaiba? You mean _Seto_ Kaiba?!

"Duh. What other Kaiba do we know? I mean, sure he isn't crazy about us but-"

"But Kaiba's already joined Marik's side! There's no way in hell he'd help us out." Joey growled, "Besides, we don't need him. We can do this by ourselves."

"No, we can't Joey. Not by ourselves."

"…We don't even have a phone here. And Kaiba Corp is on the other side of town." Mai said, "Even if we did want his help, how would we contact him?"

"There's a payphone right on the corner." Ryou began to side with Yugi, "It's worth a shot, isn't it? We can call him tomorrow."

Yami nodded, "Is that okay with everyone?"

They nodded, but Joey was silent.

"Okay then," Yugi said, "We'll go to the payphone early in the morning and call Kaiba."


	3. Somebody help us

A Tale of Two Kings

Chapter 3:

The next morning, the members of the AMA were getting ready to go out of their secret hideaway and down to the payphone. In order to be as inconspicuous as possible, they dressed in gray and brown rags that they found laying around the building. They wanted to look like normal hobos so that Marik's guards wouldn't recognize them. Mai put up a big fight about dressing in common house rags, but she got over it.

So, they were out the door and cautiously walking along the back-alleys (another precaution). They had been walking for about twenty minutes when Mai glared back at Ryou and whispered, "I thought you said it was just down the corner, Ryou!"

"I must've miscalculated… I'm sorry." He lowered his head.

"It's fine." Yami said, "Look, there it is!"

They ran to the other side of the street and crowded around the payphone.

Yugi took the receiver in his hand and put two quarters into the machine. He looked around to make sure nobody was watching and he dialed Kaiba's office number.

_Ring, Ring, Ring_! "It's Kaiba." It had been so long since Yugi heard Kaiba's voice that he almost didn't recognize it.

"H-hi, Kaiba." Yugi muttered, "It's me. How are you?"

"Enough formalities!" Joey whispered, "Let's get this show on the road!"

"Yugi? What are you doing?!" was Kaiba's reply.

"I… um, _we_ need your help, Kaiba." Yugi twisted the phone cord around his finger, "You've gotta help us stop Marik. He's out of control."

"…"

"Kaiba? Are you there?"

"…Yes, I'm here. Listen, Yugi… I can't help you."

"But-"

Joey grabbed the phone from his friend, "Listen up, Kaiba! More than half the world is under Marik's control! You can't tell me _you_ of all people are happy with some nutcase controlling your every move!"

"Wheeler, I don't have time for this! Find someone else to help you out." he then slammed the phone down on the receiver.

Yugi hung up on his end as well, "Joey!"

"What?! I knew that he wouldn't help us. It's cool, though… we can do this by ourselves."

-------------------------------

Back in Kaiba's office, he was violently massaging his temples, 'Stupid Wheeler. They're going to get themselves killed by trying to go against Marik and Malik… not that I care.'

Just then, his phone started ringing again. Kaiba picked it up, "Yugi, I told you-"

"Seto?" Marik asked.

"Oh… It's you, Marik."

"Is it my imagination or did you just say Yugi?"

"…Ah…" Kaiba bit his tongue, "No. I didn't say Yugi. I haven't heard from him in a long time."

"Really…?"

"Yes, really." Kaiba started to get defensive, "Now, what is it that you want? I'm very busy."

"I just called to say hi."

"… Well, you said it. Anything else?"

"Nope. That's about it."

"…" Kaiba hung up the phone and began to massage his temples again.

---------------------------------

Marik had hung the phone up and given it back to his servant, "Yugi and Yami are still around."

His hikari was sitting next to him with his head buried in his arms, "How do you know that?" he mumbled.

"Seto practically told me. It was written all over his face!"

"You were on the phone. You couldn't see his face." Malik said matter-of-factly.

"Then it was written all over his voice!"

"…That doesn't make any sense-"

"Oh, who cares! The point is… they're alive! I won't stand for it!"

"Well, what are you going to do about it? I mean, if they were able to run away for this long they must be hidden pretty good, right? They must be in Asia or something…"

"Nope. Something tells me they're still in Domino." Marik paced around Malik's throne, "Maybe they're living with Seto… No, that can't be. Why would Yugi be calling Seto if he lived with him? Maybe-"

"Marik!"

"What?"

"Stop pacing around me! You're making me dizzy."

Marik sat back down, "Sorry."

"You know, you think about Yami and Yugi too much. You need something else to focus on for a while."

Marik sighed, "You're right. I have an unhealthy obsession."

"Then do something about it."

"…" he thought for a minute, "Okay! Come on, Malik!" he grabbed his hikari's hand and dragged him off his seat and out the door.

"Marik! Where are we going?!"

"I need some distraction from you-know-who!"

"You mean Yugi and Ya-"

"Shh!" Marik shook his finger at Malik, "From now on, we're both totally forgetting about them. Not even their names shall be mentioned! If you _must_ refer to them… its you-know-who!"

"Um, okay. So, where are we going?"

"…Well, I need to get my mind off of… you-know-who. So, we're going to torture the prisoners. I haven't done that this week and it's on my to-do list, so I'll be killing two birds with one stone."

"Aw… poor birds."

"You need help." Marik started walking down the hallway, "But, this'll be good for you too."

As they walked through the long hallways and down metal stairways, Malik noticed something about his yami's strange taste in castle décor. There were tons of pictures of Marik everywhere. Pictures of him in a bathing suit, in a suit of armor, in a tuxedo, and in a schoolgirl uniform.

"Marik, where did all these pictures come from?"

"They're not pictures, they're paintings."

"When did you pose for all these paintings?"

"Don't worry about it, you were asleep."

Soon, they arrived at a large door and Marik signaled to the two guards to open it for them. When Marik and Malik walked in, there was a little bit of surprise on Malik's face. He'd never been down there before and so he didn't expect there to be this many people.

It was mainly a long hallway with long ongoing cells on the left and right side. The girls were on the left and the boys were on the right.

Malik followed his yami down the cells and they stopped in front of the fifth one. Marik signaled again for the guard to open the cell door and let them in.

Inside, Tristan and Otogi were lying on the ground with chains on their arms, and ankles.

Malik yanked the chains and felt how tight they were, "Marik, this is inhumane!"

"I know!" He said excitedly, "The heavy chains and spikes were my idea."

"Why?"

"I don't know. I like the way they look… it gives them a punk-rocker style."

"…Ew, and what are they wearing?" Malik looked at Tristan and Otogi's raggedy shorts and their torn shirts, "What kind of look were you going for with these?"

"This wasn't my idea. I just told the guards to give them something that made them look… miserable and ugly. Can't have anybody looking better than me."

"…Where's Kaiba's little brother?"

"I separate the kids from the adults. Just like the women from the men. Can't have any hanky panky going on behind my back."

"You're odd."

Tristan moved his head up so he could see what the noise was all about. He'd been sleeping for a while and was awoken by Malik and Marik's talking. He looked next to him and saw Otogi.

"Otogi…? What are you doing here?" He asked. But Otogi was out cold.

"Hey, he's up." Malik said, still kneeling next to Tristan, "Hi."

"What'd you do to him?!" Tristan nodded toward his friend.

"I didn't do anything." Marik said, "He was captured yesterday. And he's just been lying there."

"…You won't get away with this, Marik! Yami and Yugi will free us and stop you!"

"Ah! He said the names of you-know-who!" Marik took two steps back, "Oh my Ra! I was trying not to think about them, but he said it! He said it!"

Tristan raised an eyebrow, "All I said was Yami and Yug-"

"La-la-la-la-la!" Marik plugged his ears with his fingers, "La-la-la-la-la-la…!"

Malik groaned and led his yami out of the cell while he continued to drown out Yami and Yugi's names.

When the cell door was closed again, Tristan laid his head back down on the cold floor, 'The world is being controlled by that _weirdo_… somebody help us…'


	4. Rules are rules

A Tale of Two Kings

Chapter 4:

Later on that day, Marik was still trying get rid of his obsession with… you-know-who. He tried everything he could to get their names out of his head. Malik was going down a list with his yami of things to keep him busy. They tried water skiing, but leeches bit Marik. They tried bird watching, but the birds pecked Malik. And after numerous other trials at different events, they finally found something that they both could do easily.

"This is so cool, Marik. We finally get to _act_ like kings!" Malik was sitting next to his yami at a long hardwood table in on of the castle's dinning rooms.

Marik had a pen in one hand and a big stack of paper by the other. "I know. I've been waiting to make new laws ever since the day we took over."

"So, let's get started. Law number one."

"Okay." Marik wrote down #1 on a piece of paper, "What should number one be?"

Malik bit his lip, "Ah! I know! How about… no fat people out after dark?"

"That's a good one!" He wrote it down.

"Now, you think of one."

"Fine… um, how about… if you're ugly, wear a bag over your head."

"Ingenious!" While Marik wrote that down, Malik stated another one, "Everyone must wear a bikini on Wednesdays!"

"Even the men?"

"That's right!"

Marik wrote that one down as well, "Tattoos with our faces on them will be mandatory!"

"Does it matter where they are?"

"Nope." Marik wrote it down.

"Why don't we make every other hour Malik and Marik appreciation hour?"

"That sounds interesting."

"Yeah, we could have a ceremonial bell chime every other hour and people will bow down right then and there. It doesn't matter what their doing."

"…That's the spirit, Malik! We're really making history here!" He scribbled the new law down and thought for a minute, "…Do you think we're being a bit cruel with these new laws, Malik?"

"Really? Ya think?"

"Nah! I just like to pretend to think that!"

In about an hour's time, Marik and Malik had come up with one hundred new laws. They were both extremely pleased with themselves. Marik had given orders to one of his servants to make the laws public knowledge as soon as they were done.

"One last one, okay?"

Marik thought for a second, "Hey, I got an idea! What if we make a law that says someone's birthday will be every four years? Then, if you're like 17 you'd be 68!"

"…But Marik, _we're_ 17."

"Then… that rule won't apply to us. Only everyone else."

"Wow. Can we really do that?"

"The sky's the limit, Malik!"

-------------------------------------

About five hours later, the members of the AMA were sitting in the middle of the room waiting for Yugi and Ryou's return. They had gone out for a quick second to look in the street for something to keep them busy, and keep their minds off of Marik and Kaiba.

"I still can't believe Kaiba won't help us." Mai said, "I mean, we're in the same boat, aren't we?"

"Yeah, right…" Joey folded his arms, "That stuck-up jerk wouldn't dream of helping anyone but himself!"

"We knew it was a long shot." Yami added.

Just then, Yugi and Ryou walked in carrying a portable T.V. "Look what we found." Ryou said, setting it down in the middle of the room.

"Yeah, it was just sitting out there." Yugi plugged it into an electrical socket.

"Does it work?" Mai asked.

"We'll find out."

Ryou turned it on and flipped around to different channels that didn't have any static. He stopped the dial at the Fox News station.

They sat back and quietly watched the events of the world.

_"Just a while ago," a woman said, "Masters Marik and Malik just proclaimed 101 new world laws. They are to be put in circulation immediately. This station is one of the first to be able to air all 101. For the next hour we will post and re-post them. Remember them so you wont get thrown in jail."_

_A blue screen appeared and rules were listed one by one. _

"What the hell?!" everyone yelled.

"This is insane!" Yugi read off the screen, "Seniors over the age of 65 are to be sent to Antarctica?!"

Then they all started to read off the screen.

"Marik and Malik appreciation hour?!"

"Bikini Wednesday?!"

"Marik and Malik tattoos?!"

"All marriage certificates are now terminated?!"

"Alright Marik!" Bakura fell back laughing, "That's _priceless_! Man, he really outdid himself!"

"Bakura!" Ryou looked sharply at him, "This isn't funny! These rules are terribly ridiculous, and people all over the world have to abide by them or they'll be thrown in jail or worse!"

"B-But look at that! Have you ever seen anything more hilarious?! Marik has truly taken over and now we have to do everything he says!" Bakura began to laugh again.

"He's psychotic." Yami whispered to Yugi.

"Oh no!" Yugi cried, "I just thought of something!"

"What?"

"Poor Grandpa just turned 66! That means _he'll_ be shipped to Antarctica!"

"Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" Bakura continued to howl with laughter, "H-his grandpa is going t-to Antarctica! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

"Bakura!"

Joey sighed, "Are we really going to have to do everything on that blue screen?"

"Of course not." Yami said, "Nobody knows where we are. So, we don't have to do anything that Marik or Malik say."

"…Yeah, but for how long?"

"What do ya mean by that, Yugi?"

"Well, it's only a matter of time before Marik gets all of Asia under control. When that happens, we'll have nothing to fight for. Everything will be his and there'll be nothing we can do about it."

"Aw, ya can't think like that." Joey said, "Wasn't it you that told me not to give up on seeing my sister again? We're going to get through this, just like everything else!"

"… I guess you're right."

Mai cleared her throat, "Ahem! I hate to dry this sappy moment, but we still need to figure out these rules. I mean, we're running out of food here and soon someone will have to go to the store. But if we're out on the street not doing whatever Marik wants us to do, one of us will be arrested."

"Hey, she's right. It's going to be someone's turn to go to the store tomorrow."

"…Whose turn is it to go?"

Bakura growled, "Mine…"

"Okay, Bakura, let's see…" Ryou looked at the rules. "Tomorrow's Wednesday, isn't it?"

They all nodded.

"That means Bakura will have to go out in a bikini. And we have to draw a fake Marik and Malik tattoo on his arm. Oh, and we have to make sure to send him out at an odd numbered hour. That way he can come back before the next Marik and Malik appreciation bell... if he doesn't want to bow down."

"Wha…?!" Bakura groaned.

"Not having much fun now, are ya?" Joey asked, "That's how it is when awful rules are forced on you."

"I'm not upset about that. I'll have you know I look _awesome_ in a bikini."


	5. On the outside

A Tale of Two Kings

Chapter 5:

The next morning was extremely cold in Domino. It was starting to snow and it was around this time that the AMA members sent Bakura out to get some food. He tried to persuade them to let him go when it wasn't so cold but they were hungry and quickly dressed Bakura in the proper attire.

He was forced to go out in one of Mai's old bikinis. Ryou and Yugi drew a picture of Marik and Malik on his left arm. And he was sent out at seven o' clock so he would miss the Marik and Malik appreciation ceremony.

"But it's cold!" He protested, "I'll freeze in this!"

Joey and Yami were pushing him out the door, "You were the one bragging about how good you look in a bikini! Go out there and strut!"

"No! You can't make me!"

Bakura lost his balance and was flung out onto the street. When the door closed behind him, Joey looked through the peephole, "Don't forget to get my pudding!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah…" Bakura got up and brushed the snow off his butt. He looked around started to walk down the street.

'Alright… let's see if I can remember the list. Milk, canned food, pudding, and uh… Damn it! I forgot. Oh well, I'll just grab stuff off the shelves.'

Bakura had actually forgotten how far the store was from the building that they lived in. So, basically, he was aimlessly walking around the neighborhood to try and find something that looked familiar. Like a streetlight or a building.

As he walked along the sidewalk he noticed that there were a lot less homeless people on the street since Marik had taken over. Now, most people would jump to the conclusion that Marik had some kind of system for the homeless people to find homes… but that was not the case. Actually, Marik's rules and guards had the homeless so scared that they hid _inside_ the sewers.

Something else that Bakura found interesting was that everyone he saw outside wearing a bikini was strangely obese.

'Most of the skinny people must be inside.' He thought, 'They're probably embarrassed of their bodies. But it's strange that the fat people are so comfortable with themselves like this. Oh well… they won't be out for long. According to Marik's law, fat people aren't allowed out after dark.'

Bakura tried to hurry up. There we're guards all around and they made him nervous. He thought he saw a few following him down the street, but it turned out they were just a couple of hippies selling cocaine in the form of peace signs.

Soon, Bakura was inside the grocery store and going up and down the aisles. He'd remembered to get milk, canned food, and Joey's pudding. But just because he felt spiteful today, he got tapioca instead of the kind Joey wanted, which was chocolate.

As he continued to go to different aisles he noticed that the Marik and Malik tattoos on the other people weren't fake ones like his, but actually real.

Another thing he noticed was that in different crowds of people, there were some with big brown bags over their heads, complete with holes cut out for the eyes and nose.

Bakura smirked and thought to himself, 'Ha. Those people must be ugly. How awful… to be ugly and know it.'

After he paid for all the groceries and started to walk out of the building, he noticed the hippies following him again.

He grew tired of them and so he turned around, "Why are you following me? I don't want any cocaine, so leave me alone."

The taller one pulled out a badge from inside his tie-die shirt, "We are members of Master Marik's army."

"…" Bakura starred for a minute, "Yeah right. If you're part of Marik's army then you should know better than anybody that today is Bikini Wednesday. If you're telling the truth then why aren't you in a bikini?"

"Master Marik has declared a law that everyone over the age of 35 will wear a hippy suit on Wednesdays."

"…Oh."

"…"

"So, then what do you want from me? I've done nothing wrong."

"Oh, really?" The man licked his fingers and rubbed them on Bakura's arm, "Aha!"

"Aha, what? You just violated me!"

"Look." He held Bakura's arm up for him to see, "This tattoo is fake. You're going to have to come with us."

"Where are we going?"

"_You're_ going to jail."

"What?! No!" Bakura started to run away but both men tackled him to the ground and dragged him into their car.

They drove five miles to Marik and Malik's castle and the two men in the front seat didn't get one moment of silence. The whole way there Bakura screamed and kicked and scratched in the back seat. He cursed them both ten times in an unknown language. And after awhile, he fell asleep while nervously biting his thumbnails.

When they got to the castle, both men had to carry Bakura inside because he refused to budge. They finally got into the dungeon and threw him inside.

"Hey, you filthy rat!" Bakura yelled at the guard who was standing next to his cell, "Let me out!"

"Go sit down." The guard ordered, "Don't make me come in there."

"Come in here!"

He ignored him, "…"

"I swear, when I get out I'm going to enjoy ripping you open and playing with your insides! Let me go!"

Bakura sat in a corner, away from the other prisoners. He was smashing cockroaches while trying to think of a way out of his prison, 'Okay, think… How can I get out of here…? Wait a minute! I got it!'

He crawled up to the guard, "…Hey. I'm a friend of Marik's. Let me out."

"Ha! If I had a dollar for every time I heard that line…"

"It isn't a line! It's true! Tell him that _Bakura's_ in here."

"Sorry, but I'm not even supposed to be talking to prisoners. You should go to sleep. The execution isn't until Friday."

"E-execution?"

"Oops! Did I say that?!"

"Tell me more about this… execution."

"No way," he started to walk off, "I've already said way too much."

"Ah, hey! Come back here! Tell Marik that Bakura is in jail! Tell him!" Bakura banged on the bars, "I don't belong in here! I don't belo-"

Before he knew it, all of the other prisoners we're yelling the same things. Like 'Marik is my friend, too!' and 'Please, I'm not supposed to be here!'

Bakura gave up and plopped back down on the hard dungeon floor. "Man… This sucks. And to think… none of this never would've happened if those idiots hadn't sent me out to the store!"

"B-Bakura?" a voice asked from behind him.

He turned around and saw Otogi and Tristan on the floor in chains, "Hmm…So this is where they have you."

Tristan was sleeping but Otogi had just woken up, "Y-you're sitting on my stomach."

"Oh!" Bakura got off and sat beside him, "… So, what's up?"

"The world is being controlled by a psychopath, we're both in jail, and I haven't eaten in two days."

"You haven't?"

"Not since I went to get pudding for that idiot, Joey."

"Why didn't you just eat the pudding?"

"I tried but the guards took it from me and ate it. I guess Marik doesn't feed them either."

"Hey, do you know anything about an execution on Friday? The guard said-"

"Execution?! Who?"

"I don't know."

Just then the cell door burst open and Marik was standing with the keys in his hand, "Bakura!"

"It's about time!" Bakura got up and ran outside of the cell. He took a deep breath, "Ah! Fresh air!"

"But we're still in the dungeon."

"…" Bakura waved away Marik's comment, "Glad you came to get me."

"Well, when one of my guards told me some nut named Bakura was starting a riot down here, I knew it was you. So I came to rescue you."

"Rescue me? You're stupid guards put me down here!"

Marik started to walk out the main door and Bakura followed, "Oh. Nice bikini."

"Your stupid rule!" He blushed lightly, "This is so embarrassing!"

"No one said you had to wear it in _public_… where were you anyway? I was trying to find you since the day I took over, but you vanished."

"Ryou said I couldn't be on your side and he made me join Yami and Yugi's stupid AMA club."

"…Y-Yami and Yugi?!" Marik stopped walking and grabbed Bakura's bikini straps, "Where are they?!"

Bakura sighed, "Sorry. I can't tell you."

"_What_?! Why not?"

"Eh… It's some kind of secret."

"Bakura! Come on, man! You gotta tell me!" Marik raised his eyebrow, "Don't make me call in all the favors you owe me."

"What favors?"

"Uh… well…Okay, maybe you don't owe me any favors… but I'll make you a deal!"

"What kind of deal?"

"… You tell me where you-know-who is hiding and I'll let you live with me. Ryou, too… You'll be living in the castle and I'll put you in charge of my new army, 'kay? Sound good?"

"I'm sorry, I--" Bakura gave it a little more thought, "Deal!"


	6. Go get help

A Tale of Two Kings

Chapter 6:

That night inside the old building that Yami and his friends had been hiding in, everyone was worried about where Bakura had gone. Only Ryou started to panic around noon but since then, he had turned hysterical. Everyone was trying their best to calm him down, but he had gone beyond reason.

"…Well what if something terrible has happened to him?!" Ryou was pacing around the room as his friends sat in a circle, "He could have been killed!"

"Now, now Ryou…" Yami tried to comfort him, "I'm sure Bakura hasn't been killed. If anything, he's killed someone else. You know how he gets at grocery stores."

Yugi nodded, "Right. He thinks it's a race and he runs people over with the shopping carts."

"But still!" Ryou cried.

"I'm sure he just got caught in traffic." Mai said.

"He walked!"

"_Foot_ traffic."

"It figures!" Joey sighed heavily, "Both times this has happened… with Otogi and now Bakura. Every time I ask someone to get me some pudding at the store, they end up missing."

"Joey-"

"No, Yugi… don't say it. I know it's true." Joey closed his eyes, "It's the pudding. It's cursed."

"It's okay," Yami said, "It isn't your fault."

"…Thanks, man. I still feel kinda bad, though. I mean, if I hadn't had a craving for yummy pudding goodness… Bakura would still be here."

Yami whispered in Yugi's ear, "Well, when you look at it that way… it _is_ his fault."

Yugi nodded.

Joey stood up and yelled, "Oh cruel pudding! You have taken another unsuspecting victim to your chocolaty grave!"

"What?!" Ryou collapsed on the floor, "Oh, this is too much. We shouldn't be talking about Joey's cursed pudding! We should be talking about what happened to Bakura!"

"Hey, I just got an idea…" Mai said thoughtfully, "Suppose… he's been captured. Just like Otogi."

Yugi nodded, "Maybe."

"That's not good for us." Yami said, "What if he's told Marik where we are?"

"No, Bakura wouldn't do that." Ryou shook his head, "He knows this is a secret and he wants to help out the good side this time."

"I dunno." Joey sighed, "They're friends aren't they?"

"Well, yeah… But-"

"Just in case…" Yami got up and headed for the door, "I'm gonna go find him."

Yugi started to get up, "Yami, you don't have to-"

"We can't take any chances, Yugi. I'll be back soon." He shut the door behind him.

"Well…" Mai shrugged, "I guess it's just the four of us."

"Don't say that!" Yugi and Ryou shouted at once, "He's coming back!"

"…Jeez. I was just stating the obvious. Lighten up."

------------------------------

It was about ten minutes after Yami had left. He looked around for Bakura and even called his name a few times, even though he knew it was dangerous. He saw lots of people on the main street but he couldn't go there. They were all wearing bikinis and even in the night, Yami didn't want to chance being seen in normal clothes on a Wednesday.

As Yami was walking down the next ally he thought to himself, 'Ryou's right. Bakura wouldn't tell Marik anything… even if he was captured. He may be a psychopath… but he's a trustworthy psychopath. I don't know what I'm even doing out here.'

He turned around and started back for the old building, 'I might as well head back. He's probably already there and driving everybody crazy.'

When he reached the entrance to the building, he was about to open the door but he heard someone about to come out. Not wanting to get hit when the door flew open, Yami moved out of the way.

As soon as he did, the door burst open and five tall men came out carrying all his friends. Mai was trying to get away but she was being carried pretty easily, and Yugi was just screaming his head off. Joey was knocked out and Ryou was crying.

Yami was getting ready to run after them but before he could, Yugi saw him in the shadows and mouthed the words, 'Go get help!'

He mouthed back, 'Who?!'

The men were shoving Yugi into the backseat of the car and he couldn't say much but he yelled out, "Kaiba!"

They started the car and rushed down the road. Yami soon got over his state of shock and ran around in a little circle, "What am I going to do?! What am I going to do?! I-I have to call Kaiba! That's right, Yugi said get Kaiba!"

Yami immediately took off down the street towards Kaiba's mansion. He was taking the main street even though there were other people looking at him. Once he ran five blocks and rounded the corner, he slowed down and walked up to Kaiba's front door.

He knocked twice and waited. After two minutes of sitting on Kaiba's porch, Yami sighed, "What am I doing here? Kaiba didn't help us when we asked last time… why would he-"

The door suddenly opened and Kaiba looked down at Yami, "… What are you doing here?"

"Kaiba! Marik's guards just came and took everyone away! You have to help me!"

He leaned against the doorframe and shook his head, "No, Yami. I'm not getting involved with this."

"But Kaiba-"

"Marik already has Mokuba."

"Ah… he does?"

"But he said that if I go along with him and don't interfere, he'll give Mokuba back to me. So I'm not going to do anything that will jeopardize that."

"You actually believe _Marik_?! He took your brother from you in the first place! And you think that he's going to give your brother up so easily?! Kaiba, that's foolish-"

"I don't have a choice!" he slammed the door shut and left Yami standing out on the porch.

'Ugh! Now what…?'

---------------------------------------

Inside the castle's dungeon, Yugi, Ryou, Mai and Joey were just thrown inside one of the cells. They'd been in there for about ten minutes when Joey finally woke up.

He shook his head and his friends came into focus.

"Guys… where are we?" he asked, sitting up, "The last thing I remember is a bunch of creeps coming in and…"

Yugi nodded, "Yeah, Joey. We're in Marik's castle now."

"Huh?! You mean they actually got us?!"

"Well, this sucks!" Mai shouted, "Marik has us now. There's no way to fight back."

"That's not true, Mai. Yami's getting help. I told him to go to Kaiba."

"What?!" Joey looked at Yugi, "You didn't seriously think Kaiba would help out! He hung up on us the last time!"

"Kaiba will help us out this time. He knows helping us is the right thing to do… I have faith in him."

"I have faith in him, too…" Joey said, "Faith that he'll be a selfish jerk like always!"

Mai looked over at Ryou, "Well, Ryou… I guess you were wrong about Bakura."

"What do you mean?"

"Hello?!" she knocked on his head, "Is anybody home?! Bakura sold us out, Ryou! He totally gave us away to Marik and the world as we knew it is gone forever!"

"Stop it, Mai!" Yugi sighed, "Arguing will get us no where."

Less than a minute passed when the door to their cell was opened and Bakura was standing on the other side, "Let's go, you guys."

"Bakura!" Ryou hopped out of the cell before anyone else, "What're you doing here? We were worried about you."

"Come on," Bakura started walking down the hall, "We have to hurry up."

Everyone started to follow him without question. While they were walking, Ryou made Mai apologize about what she had said about Bakura. But before they reached their destination, Yugi realized that there was something off about Bakura.

"You okay?" Yugi asked.

Bakura turned around and told them to stay while he got something. They were only waiting for a couple of seconds, after that Bakura came back into the large gold room with Marik and Malik walking in front of him.

Marik grinned and called out, "Guards!"

Instantly a bunch of servants came out of the shadows and captured only three of them. Ryou was left standing alone.

"Bakura!" he yelled, "What are they doing?!"

"…"

Marik laughed, "Yes! Finally, I've got you! He-he-he-he!" he skipped merrily past Yugi, Joey and Mai but then stopped, "…Uh, wait a minute."

He took a quick headcount and jumped back, "Where's Yami?!" he turned back to Bakura, "Wasn't Yami with the others?!"

"Yeah, he was." He answered, "I guess your stupid guards didn't get him."

Marik whipped his head around and glared at the men holding Yugi and his friends, "I thought I told you to get all of them! Including the ex-pharaoh!"

"But sir," one of them stepped forward, "These were the only people in the building."

Marik paced around the middle of the room and mumbled to himself.

"Marik," Malik said, "Do you want me to tell them to go back and search for him? It probably won't take long."

"No." he smirked, "I think I've got a better idea…"


	7. On his knees

A Tale of Two Kings

Chapter 7:

It was a little past midnight and Yami was walking aimlessly around the streets of Domino. He was the only one outside, except for an occasional hobo or two. But other than that, he was alone.

'What am I going to do? Kaiba won't help me and if I go to try and free them on my own, I'll just be captured as well.'

Yami sat down on the cold cement sidewalk and snuggled up in the shadow of a building, 'Well… I'm obviously not going to be able to do anything tonight… I might as well get some sleep and figure this out tomorrow.'

The next morning, all the snow and ice had melted away. Not that it mattered because (since it was no longer Wednesday) no one had to wear bikinis. The bright rays of sunlight hit Yami's face and his eyes fluttered open. He sat up and looked around, half confused and half depressed.

Confused because he didn't really remember falling asleep in the middle of the sidewalk. And depressed because he knew his hikari and his friends were still trapped in Marik's castle.

He stood up and started walking down the street. Yami really had no idea where he was going but the one place he knew he had to go was to rescue his friends.

'But I need Kaiba for that. I need somebody's help… I can't just show up at Marik's and say _Give me my friends!_ They'd shoot me.'

He was heading towards an ally but while he rounded the corner, he slipped on a little patch of ice. Yami held onto the lid of a trashcan to try and stand up and while he was trying to stand, two people in the corner were talking.

"Did you just hear about what Master Marik's doing?" one of them asked, "It was all over the news early this morning."

"What?"

"Well, apparently they've been keeping this a secret for a while but… Marik's castle is totally filled to the brim with prisoners. There's gonna be an execution on Friday."

'What?!' Yami gasped.

"Friday?! But that's tomorrow!"

"I know. It's a real shame too. Like, a third of Domino is in there. Marik's going to have a camera crew at the event, too, in order to show it all over the world."

"Wow. And this has been a secret for how long?"

"I dunno. But word has it that Marik is real mad because someone he _wanted_ to kill is nowhere to be found. The way things are going, I wouldn't be surprised if Marik killed us all next."

"No kidding…"

Yami had heard enough. He hopped up and started sprinting towards Marik and Malik's castle. Some of the guards that were on the streets watched him as he was running at an alarming speed.

'You've gotta be kidding me!' Yami thought as he ran, 'Marik's going to kill them all?! How evil can he ge-'

He slowed down in front of a television display inside of a store's window. Marik was on screen and he was directing his comments at Yami.

_"…I know you're out there, you has-been! You'd better show up soon or else, along with all your other friends, you're little hikari will no longer be with us."_

_Yugi appeared on the screen with his hands and ankles chained to the wall. _

_Marik smirked, "You probably already heard about the execution tomorrow… Well, if you don't come, I'm going to not only kill Yugi but torture him! Along with all your other friends!"_

The screen went black and then something else came on.

Yami started running again. 'Gotta get there… gotta save them… gotta stop Marik…'

--------------------------------------

At the Kaiba mansion, Seto was talking on the phone with one of his business associates. The volume of the T.V was on low while he was finishing his conversation.

As he was talking, Marik came on screen and publicized his threats to Yami. Kaiba was fidgeting a little bit, but the part that really got him was:

_"You probably already heard about the execution tomorrow… Well, if you don't come, I'm going to not only kill Yugi but torture him! Along with all your other friends!"_

Seto hung up the phone, "Mokuba…!"

--------------------------------------

Inside the castle, Marik was sitting next to Malik with a tape recorder in hand. He had been thinking about different things he'd like to change when Yami was under his control and there was no one left to interfere with his new world order.

"Note to self," Marik said into the recorder, "Change the name of the planet. Earth sounds… so frumpy."

Malik looked at his yami, "Frumpy? What does that mean?"

"Must you interrupt me?!" he cleared his throat, "… If you must know, the word _frump _means a plain and dowdy woman."

"… So, the planet is a plain and dowdy woman?"

"Well, duh. I was thinking about something with more sex appeal. Like… Cocoa. Or-"

"Kenny?"

"…" There was a moment of silence, "Okay. I'm gonna let that slide, Malik."

"I was just trying to help."

"We should rename it Marik."

"What?! That's silly."

"Why?"

"Two reasons… one, there's _two_ rulers of this planet. Even if I am a co-King. And two, think about it… how would it sound if someone is asking someone else where they live and they say: _I live on Marik._ Why would you want people living on you?"

"Alright, that was totally ridiculous. I'll just skip down the list…" he pressed a button on the recorder, "Next, I'd like for us to rewrite the bible."

"You've got to be kidding."

"No, I'm not. That thing is silly… we'll write a new bible and since it is based on us and our way or life, we shall call it the Marble."

"Marble?! What is that supposed to mean?"

"Well, the first three letters of my name is M-a-r. Then add B-l-e. And it works out for you too because the first two letters of your name is M-a."

"… I guess if you say it enough, it sounds kinda cool… Marble… Marble. Marble! Marble, Marble, Marble! I like it!"

"That's the spirit! The Marble will be in every hotel room around the world! And it will be taught in universities!"

"Hooray!"

------------------------------------

Meanwhile, Bakura and Ryou were in another part of the castle. They were walking in one of the hallways trying to find the way back to their rooms. It had actually been quiet for a while because of all the tension between them, but at last Ryou spoke out…

"… Oh, Bakura! How could you do such a thing?! Those were our friends!"

"What? I didn't do anything… all I did was help out another friend of mine."

"Well, maybe Marik is your friend but that still doesn't mean you should help him kidnap others! That wasn't very nice."

"…"

"Bakura, this is serious!" Ryou turned his yami around to face him, "Marik wants to kill Yugi and everyone else!"

"No, he doesn't. That's just a bluff to get Yami to come here. Marik's about as dangerous as a psychotic cat."

"If it's all just a bluff then why has he been telling all the guards around here that there's about to be a lot more room for prisoners?"

"I dunno. He's probably going to enlarge this place or something. You know, add a sunroom or something."

"… Well, sunroom or no sunroom I think we should go downstairs and get them out of there!"

"No can do, Ryou."

"Why?"

Bakura walked over to a door and opened it, "Because, Wheel of Fortune is on in ten minutes and I just got a big screen T.V in my room."

"Wha…?! No, no, no!" he grabbed Bakura's hand and dragged him down the stairs, "Were going to see Marik and clear up this entire thing!"

When they got back to Marik and Malik's throne room, Bakura wiggled away from Ryou's grip and stood up.

Marik had his head buried in a notebook and he was writing furiously, "…"

Malik was falling asleep over his paper. He looked up and saw Ryou and Bakura starring up at him, "Oh, hi guys. Did you have any trouble finding your rooms?"

"Well, yes." Ryou said, "But that's not why we're here."

"It's not?" Bakura asked.

"No! Marik…?" he looked up at the spiky blonde hair moving back and forth behind the notebook, "Marik?"

"What is it?" he mumbled.

"…Um, I wanted to ask you if you're really going to execute all those people down there."

Marik looked at him, "I was-"

As soon as he started to talk, a servant came into the room, "Master Marik! Yami is here to see you."

"What?! Really?!" he asked excitedly.

Yami walked in through the doors and stood in front of all four of them. "Okay, Marik, I'm here. Let Yugi and everyone else go."

He walked up to Yami, "Finally… Do you know how long I've been waiting for you?!"

"Um, no."

Marik snapped his fingers. In a second, a man came in the room with Yugi under his arm and stood next Malik.

"Hi Yami!" Yugi squealed, "Did you get Kaiba?"

"No… not exactly."

"What?! Then what are you doing here?! Go! Run! Marik's insane!"

Marik groaned, "Shut him up!"

The man put his big hand over Yugi's face. He started to flail around but was held with ease.

"Now, Yami." Marik continued, "I need you here because technically… I'm not King until you, the old king, recognize me as such."

"Huh?"

"I read it in a manual."

"Manual?"

Marik help up a book, "Guide to World Domination. So just bow down to me and we can get on with our lives. Wheel of Fortune is on soon…"

Yugi managed to get the man's hand off, "Yami! Don't do it!"

"But-"

"No, no, no, no!" Yugi screamed.

Ryou looked at Bakura, "Isn't there anything we can do?"

"Well, I guess we could always _tape_ Wheel of Fortune, but-"

"Not the damn show!"

Marik pointed at Yugi, "If you don't do it, Yami, I'll have him drop Yugi on his soft spot!"

"Soft spot?" Yami asked.

"Yeah. I read somewhere that young people have a soft spot on their heads and if it gets hit, it'll kill them. Or do some kind of brain damage. Whatever, it all sounds good to me."

The guy turned Yugi over and was prepared to drop him, "Awaiting orders, Master Marik."

"Wanna make the decision, Yami?" Marik raised his eyebrows.

"Don't do it, Yami!"

"Oh this is too terrible to watch!" Ryou cringed.

"This is _better_ than Wheel of Fortune!"

"Ugh!" Yami dropped to his knees, "…I'm sorry Yugi…"

"All right!!!" Marik jumped up, "Yes! Yahoo! I win!"

"Oh, no…" Yugi bit his lip, "What has he done…?"


	8. Marik's true plan

A Tale of Two Kings

Chapter 8:

After Yami surrendered to Marik, he had Yami and Yugi thrown back into a cell with their friends. It was about five in the evening when they had all finally accepted defeat by Marik and Malik. Well… all except one.

"Come on, you guys…" Yugi said, "Isn't there something we can do before tomorrow?"

"Yeah, there is." Joey nodded, "We can all get some sleep."

Otogi sat up, "What? We'll be sleeping forever! The least you can do is saver the night."

Mai squealed happily, "Ooh, that sounds so romantic! Just like in those foreign movies where the guy is about to be killed by an evil dictator the next morning and his girlfriend and him only have one night together… all we need is some snow and a sad melody!"

"… Well, they do have a point," Tristan said, "we _should_ saver the night… You know, have a prison party or something."

"Yeah!"

"I can't believe this is how far we've fallen." Yami whispered to Yugi, "It's all my fault that we're about to have a prison party…"

"It isn't your fault. We can still get out… I think."

"But it seems so hopeless."

"We'll think of something."

"So, we'll need supplies for a party." Otogi looked around, "Do you think there's a corner store or something we can go to for beer and chips?"

"Oh yeah, Otogi…" Joey said sarcastically, "I'm sure if we tell the guards they'll _gladly_ let us out to the store."

"And maybe they'll even wanna join us."

"I was joking!"

"We need decorations." Tristan stood up, "How do you think streamers would look across the walls?"

"I was thinking about some paper chains. You know, with different color construction paper."

"Ooh, that would be pretty. We'll need games, too."

"How do you feel about Pin the Tail on the Donkey?"

"All right, that is enough!" Yami said firmly, "We cannot just give in to Marik and let him slaughter us like a bunch of little sheep. We've gotta get the millennium puzzles away from him and Malik. There's no if, ands, or buts about it."

"How are we going to do that?"

He turned to Yugi, "Do you remember how Marik and Malik got the puzzles from us in the first place?"

"Don't remind me… that was an embarrassment."

"Yes, but I figure we could do the same thing to them. Just grab them and run."

"Do you think they'd fall for it?"

"Of course. This _is_ Marik and Malik we're talking about."

Mai thought for a second, "Well, that could work, but… we'd need to get out of here first. Any ideas about that?"

"Uh… no, not really. No."

Joey was over by the cell door; he was looking out through the bars on the other side, "…"

"What are you doing, Joey?" Yugi asked, "What's wrong?"

"…Well," he sighed, "It's just that I never got to see my sister again. Serenity's going to be killed tomorrow and I didn't even get those five bucks that she owed me…"

"I'm sure Kaiba feels the same way about Mokuba."

"What?! No way! Kaiba didn't even come to try and help his brother! What a jerk…"

"Maybe he doesn't know about the execution tomorrow. He is kinda busy."

"That's no excuse!"

"… I guess not."

Yami shook on the bars of the cell and they didn't even budge, "Something tells me it's going to take a while to get out of here."

"We don't have a lot of time!"

"I know…"

----------------------------------------

As soon as the prisoners went back to their cells, Marik went back to writing the Marble. He forced Malik to help as well but he was having a hard time with the concept. Malik just could not get exactly what they were doing. So, Marik took it upon himself to try and explain.

"All right, I'll go over it again. We're writing _our_ version of the bible. Which means don't go off writing about Moses, Jesus or anything that came from the original… We have to do this our way."

"Okay… And why are we writing this again?"

"We're writing this because, generations from now, little kids will be learning from their parents about the creation of man and all that. If we write this and force people to read it, later on their kids are gonna believe _us_ to be their creators. This insures that we will not be taken out of power."

"But Marik… we won't be alive generations from now."

"Aha! That's where you're wrong, Malik!"

"Huh?"

"I've got us covered on that end, as well. I already thought about our death… I mean, someone's going to murder us sometime, right? In or sleep, or while we're taking a bath. It could even be tonight-"

"Ahh! Marik, cut it out! You're scaring me!"

"Oh, sorry."

"I don't wanna have to think about that kind of thing while I'm taking a bath… that's my relaxing time…"

"All right, well anyways… I'm going to have a bunch of scientists clone us."

"…Clones?"

"That way the Marik and Malik clan shall always live on! And they'll be just like us, so they'll do everything that we would do if we were alive."

"Wow… that's cool. I guess we are covered forever…"

"Right. So, let's get started on these Marbles. Malik, I want you to write chapter-"

Just then a man walked in, "Masters Marik and Malik. I'm sorry to interrupt sirs, but Asia is now under complete control."

"What? Really?!" Malik and Marik spoke at the same time.

"Yes, sirs."

"Marik," Malik looked at his yami, "Does that mean the whole planet is ours now?"

"It sure does!" Marik got up from his throne and danced in the center of the room, "It's about time this happened! I was waiting for an eternity!"

Malik watched Marik dance for about two minutes then he thought of something, "Hey, Marik?"

"Not now, Malik. I'm dancing."

"But Marik! This is an important question!"

"… Alright, ask you're question. But after that I'm gonna Samba all night long."

"A-are you really going to kill Yami and his friends? I mean… _really_?"

"Well, I wasn't going to _kill_ them, exactly. That was just to build the drama and make Yami get here quicker. What I'm planning to do is going to be much more fun."

"Oh…What's that?"

He giggled evilly, "I shall show you." Marik walked to the other side of the room and pulled a giant chart down from the ceiling, "Come here."

Malik went over and stood in front of the chart. On it was a picture of a small island surrounded by lots of water.

"What is it?"

"That," he pointed, "Is a newly discovered island, Malik. Our troops found it yesterday while trying to get to Antarctica to drop off the old people."

"And so… what are you going to do with it?"

"Tomorrow, all the people down there are going to be loaded onto ships and be sent all the way down there to join the snowmen."

"Wow. That's really… strange."

"Ah, but that is only part one of my plan. You see, unlike the old people, I will not be equipping them with food and such."

"Uh…"

"Do you get it? That island is a frozen piece of nothing and their not going to have any food! They'll be forced to eat each other!"

"Ewww! Marik, that's gross."

"And I've already set up hidden camera's all over the island. So that means we'll be able to watch from here!"

"Oh, you are sick and twisted."

Marik bowed, "Thank you."


	9. Today's the day Part 1

A Tale of Two Kings

Chapter 9:

Through the barred windows of the prison came little rays of sunlight. The night was over and so was the prisoners' party. They hadn't been able to go to the store but they made do with things they found around their cell. In order to have snacks, Joey had to wrestle some cheese away from a mouse. And the decorations were their clothes. They hung them up on the wall and partied in underwear. Last was the music, which was provided by Tristan and Otogi who made farting noises with their armpits.

But the night was gone and Friday was there. Yami was the first person to get up. He looked around and rubbed his eye, 'Well, today's the day.'

Yami shook his hikari's shoulder and woke him up, "YAWN… Aw man. I was hoping this was all a bad dream."

"Yeah… Well, we might as well wake the others." Yami looked over at the opposite end, "Come on, get up you guys. It's almost time to meet our maker."

"…Huh?" Joey shook his head a little and looked up, "Woo. That was some party, man. I think someone spiked the cheese, though."

"It was probably the mouse you took it from, Joey." Mai said, "I mean, he did look suspicious."

Otogi stretched, "Does anyone know what time we die?"

"Don't sound so happy when you say that! Just enjoy your last minutes of life…"

Everyone breathed in heavily and exhaled slowly.

"… You know," Yami said, "I just thought of something."

"Really? Something that we can do to stop Marik?"

He nodded, "We're going to be taken someplace to be killed, right? So when we get out we can make a run for it. We just have to wait till we see Marik and Malik and then try to break away to take the millennium puzzles."

"That's a great idea!"

"Thanks."

"Then that's what we'll do. As soon as we see Marik and Malik."

Yugi clapped, "Yay! Now we won't be mercilessly slaughtered!"

"… Speaking of which…" Mai said, "Does anyone really know how Marik was planning to do it? Kill us, I mean."

"I… never really thought about it." Yami tilted his head, "Knowing Marik it's probably some sick beheading."

"I sure hope not," Otogi fluffed his hair, "I've spent _way_ too much time beautifying my face to have my whole head chopped off."

Tristan nodded, "I was hoping for a shot. Like the kind that dogs get when they're put to sleep."

"Heh, I think that's the last this Marik would do. He's so… inhumane. Besides that, he wouldn't have the patience to administer a shot to everyone here."

"I think he'd rather have someone else do it."

"Why? Do you think he's squeamish?"

"No… he just-"

"Stop! We shouldn't talk about this kind of thing! It'll jinx us…"

"Come on, Yugi. You mean to tell me you don't think about this stuff? Doesn't it creep into your mind some time?"

"No. And I don't want it to."

"Ugh, I can't take it anymore!" Joey yelled, "All this waiting is totally destroying me!"

Yugi stood next to his friend, "Calm down, Joey! It'll all be over soon."

"…Did you have to use those exact words?!"

"Sorry. I mean, we'll get _out_ of here soon. And the world will be back to normal. We just have to wait a little bit longer."

Joey shook the bars of the cell, "But I just know something bad is gonna happen! We're all going to die! Die! Die! Die!"

"Stop it, Joey! Shh!"

"Die! Die! Die! Die! _Die_!"

Yami and Mai tried to help Yugi get Joey under control but he was already climbing on the bars and screaming at the top of his lungs. Of course, with the entire jail filled to the brim with prisoners with weak-constitutions, this had an impact on them as well.

They started to join Joey in yelling desperate remarks:

"Today we shall die!"

"We're going to meet our maker!"

"Please, not yet!"

"The apocalypse is here! Sanctuary!"

Soon the whole place was filled with screeching and cage rattling. In a minute, the door burst open with a bunch of guards running into the hall.

"Hey, hey!" one of them shouted, "What do you think you're doing in here?!" He and the others went into the cells and started handcuffing people and leading them out.

Yami and Yugi finally got Joey off the bars and calmed him down, "It's gonna be okay, Joey."

The guards got to their cell and opened it up. They cuffed Joey, Yami, Yugi, Mai, Tristan and Otogi and pushed them out to the main hallway.

They walked in three long, straight lines down the hall and out the main door. Yami was right beside Yugi and they were both fidgeting with their handcuffs for a quick getaway when the time came.

"I-I can't move them." Yami whispered to his light, "They're too tight."

"Me neither…"

Yami looked behind him, "Otogi, can you get out of your handcuffs? Ours are too tight."

"I'm trying…" he jiggled them. "But-"

"Hey!" A guard came up to them, "No talking."

When he went away, Yami looked back at Otogi, "We're running out of time, we have to get these off."

--------------------------------------

Marik and Malik were standing on a high platform about five hundred meters outside the castle walls. Along with them were Ryou and Bakura, only because they were curious about what was going to happen to the prisoners.

They were right by the bay and three good size ships were lining the harbor. Guards surrounded the entire area but they were starting to get sleepy, waiting for two hours had obviously taken its toll.

Marik took in a deep breath, "Ah! What a wonderful day to ship unsuspecting people to an uncharted, frozen island."

"Wha…?" Ryou took a double take, "You're shipping them to a frozen island?!"

"…I thought you told him, Bakura." Marik said.

"Oh yeah. Must've slipped my mind."

"Yup," Malik added, "Marik's going to force them to be cannibals and eat each other. We'll get to watch it from here."

Bakura smirked, "Wow, like a reality show?"

"That's right. It'll be like Survivor! We'll get to see which person gets eaten first and which is the last man standing."

"Won't it be cool if the last person starts to eat his own leg?!"

"Yeah!"

"No!" Ryou shook his head furiously, "No, no, no! That's disgusting and wrong! You aren't going to send them _food_, Marik?"

"Nope. I'm not going to send them squat. They can fish or something if they don't want to eat each other. But that wouldn't be very much fun for us, would it?"

Bakura nodded, "You gonna watch with us, Ryou?"

"Absolutely not! Marik, you don't feel _any_ remorse for sending these poor people to their doom?!"

"… Uh, not really."

Malik leaned over and whispered to Ryou, "You shouldn't expect much from a guy who gets high off of whiteout."

"Oh my."

"…And here are our cannibals now!" Marik pointed towards the prisoners walking out of the gates, "Right on time."

They continued to walk until they all stood in front of the platform. Yami, Yugi and the rest of their group looked up to face Marik and Malik. They couldn't help but see Ryou and Bakura as well. They weren't very happy.

"Look at that." Mai whispered to Joey, "They're such traitors."

"Nah, Mai. Ryou looks so miserable."

"Okay, so _he's_ not a traitor. But what about Bakura?"

"… Well, he's a different story."

After the guards got everyone quieted down, Marik cleared his throat, "Well, you've probably heard about today. You've probably heard that I'm going to kill each and every one of you."

The prisoners groaned.

"But, that is not the case. You see, instead of getting our hands dirty… me and Malik have decided to send you off on a… _vacation_. To an exotic island."

The prisoners cheered.

Malik whispered to Marik, "Vacation? What's that all about?"

"I just don't want them to make a bug fuss while getting on the ships. Our guards aren't well-trained and they can't handle a situation like that."

"Oh."

Most of the people bought Marik's lie about them going on a vacation and they were now happy and content. Yugi and his friends didn't buy it at all, though.

"Can you _believe_ him?!" Yugi said, "Lying to everyone like that! Has he no shame?!"

"Never mind his lies." Yami took Yugi's handcuffs and broke them in half ontop of his, "Since I can't get out, you'll have to go."

Yugi shook his hands and looked up, "But I can't rush them both by myself!"

"Come on, Yugi."

The guards started to load the first people inside the ships. Without his friends' knowing, Tristan was already in the first ship.

Joey started to urge him as well, "Hurry it up!"

"Ugh…!" He slid out of line, "I'm going! I'm going!"


	10. Today's the day Part 2

A Tale of Two Kings

Chapter 10:

Yugi got the rest of the handcuffs off and slipped out of his line. He went to the back carefully and made sure the guards couldn't see him moving.

Yami looked back at him and waved his hands for Yugi to keep going. But as soon as he left the spot beside his yami, a guard came up, "Why is there a gap here?"

"Uh…" Yami fidgeted, "I don't know. Someone must've gotten trampled."

"What?"

Otogi looked back at them, "You'd have better luck seeing if he's in the back."

"Listen, I don't think anyone got trampled-"

"Go on! He could be dead! Go back there and check!" he stomped his foot, "Shoo!"

The guard growled but went back to check for Yugi anyway.

Meanwhile, Yugi was tiptoeing towards the platform that Marik and Malik were standing on. He reached the wall and looked up.

'Great… How am I going to get up there?'

--------------------------------

At the front of the lines, people were going into the ships in a single file order. They were serene and quiet only because they thought they were going on some all expense paid vacation.

But of course, some people weren't convinced… such as Joey. It was his turn and he absolutely refused to get on.

Marik saw him protesting, "Ugh. There's always a problem…" He signaled to the guards to go over and help Joey inside.

Joey was trying to run away from the guards but they double-teamed him. He was trashing and pushing away from the ramp, "Hey! Come on, let me go!"

"Get… on… the ship!" they grunted while forcing him inside.

"No!"

In the back of the line, Yami and Otogi were watching Joey making a spectacle of himself.

"He's going to blow it!" Otogi whispered.

"I know. I just hope Yugi is doing okay."

"Where is he? I can't see him up with Marik or Malik." He looked up at the platform. Then he looked at ground level and saw Yugi jumping and trying to grab onto the edge.

"Oh boy…" Otogi sighed.

"What?"

"Yugi isn't tall enough to get onto the platform."

Yami looked over and saw Yugi struggling, "… Maybe I should have gone."

"Yeah, maybe so."

--------------------------------

Yugi was still having a hard time getting on top of the platform. He knew that he didn't want to make a lot of noise because he wanted the element of surprise on his side. So he looked around for a quiet way to sneak up there.

He walked around and made sure no one could see him. After going around the whole thing he noticed a little door close to the ground.

'This could be another way up there!' He opened the hatch and crawled inside.

--------------------------------

On top of the platform, Marik was enjoying the view of all the people being herded into the boats like little sheep.

"Well, Malik, this is it. When Yugi and Yami are gone, we'll be free to do whatever we want."

"… You mean like adding a sunroom on our castle?" Malik asked.

"That's right."

As Marik and his hikari continued to talk, Ryou was currently ignoring Bakura. He said that if Bakura wasn't going to be on the right side, then he wouldn't acknowledge him at all.

"Aw, come on! You can't just ignore me!"

"…" Ryou turned his back.

"What the hell are you mad about?!"

He whipped his head around, "I'm mad because-"

Looking down, Ryou noticed that his foot was moving up and down all by itself. He pulled it back and out of a little trapdoor popped Yugi.

Ryou whispered, "Yugi? Wow, I didn't think you'd be the one to come up here."

"I know, but Yami couldn't get away so I came instead."

"Oh my…"

"Whew…" Yugi sighed, "I could barely breath down there."

Bakura's eyebrow twitched, "…What are you doing up here?"

"Not now, Bakura." Yugi stood up and tiptoed towards Marik, "I'm on a mission." Of course, Marik was completely unaware about the little person sneaking up behind him. He was looking out at the boats which were now almost completely full of passengers. Yami had yet to get on, though. He kept on scooting to the back to wait a little longer.

"Uh, Marik." Malik said, pointing behind his yami, "Look."

"Huh…?" as soon as he looked back, a flash of spiky tri-colored hair came sprinting towards him.

Yugi jumped as high as he could and tried to tackle Marik to the ground. Unfortunately, Yugi's highest jump only came to Marik's waist. And he didn't even knock Marik over. Instead, he almost gave himself a concussion from hitting his forehead on Marik's belt buckle.

"Ouch!" Yugi was on the floor writhing in pain. "Oh my Ra… it hurts!"

Marik tilted his head, not entirely sure that was Yugi.

'Not even Yami would be dumb enough to send Yugi up here.' He thought, 'But that must be him… who else has hair like that?'

Bakura and Malik were beside themselves with laughter and Ryou was shaking his head in pity. Marik picked Yugi up by the back of his shirt, "…How did you get out of line?"

"Uh… I… um…"

Marik shook his head, "Never mind." he held Yugi up and called out to the line, "Yami!"

Yami looked up and almost died of embarrassment when he saw the way Marik had his hikari under control, "Oh, Yugi…" he muttered.

"Yami, your feeble attempt to gain control of the millennium puzzles was pathetic!"

Yugi waved to Yami and smiled apologetically, "Sorry… he was taller than I thought."

Marik gave Yugi to a guard and he put both Yami and Yugi into the third ship. Yugi looked at his yami and twiddled his thumbs, "Um-"

"Don't say it." he raised his hand to Yugi's mouth, "Please, don't say it."

"…"

------------------------------------

Meanwhile, outside the ship, Ryou was trying to reason with Marik. But he wasn't really listening. He was too busy making sure that all the doors on the boats were locked tightly and that they were ready for immediate departure.

"Yes, sir." one of the guards said, "Everything is ready."

"Good. The captains are already on board, as well?"

"Yes."

"Marik, listen to me!" Ryou groaned in aggravation, "You can't just ship them off to another part of the world like this! It's inhumane!"

"What are you talking about?" Bakura turned to him, "You didn't make this big a fuss when he shipped the old people to Antarctica."

"That's different! I don't know any of the elderly people personally."

Marik finished talking to his servants, "Well, sorry you feel that way, Ryou. But we've got to get rid of the trash. Can't have it stinking up my new empire."

"But-"

"Let's get this show on the road." Marik signaled towards the people on the decks of the boats.

The guards on the harbor began cutting the ropes and the captains started the engines. In less than a minute all three boats were off the dock and heading south… for some uncharted island close to Antarctica. 


	11. Getting there

A Tale of Two Kings

Chapter 11:

The inside of the boat was really dark and dank. It had cobwebs in the corners and lots of nasty things on the walls. Writing that Marik's servants had put up there just for fun… like: For a good time, call Bakura. With all those people crammed in there, it wasn't a very pleasant smell either. There was no bathroom installed in the bottom of the ship, and they'd been on the sea for about ten hours. So, you know what that smell was like.

But despite these terrible conditions, the passengers couldn't be happier. In their minds, this was the last bad thing they'd have to put up with. Because after the ship ride, they'd be on a tropical island. Of course, everyone believed Marik's lie because all the torture they'd been put through left them helpless and gullible.

Yugi and Yami were on the third ship, which happened to be the least crowded only because all the left over prisoners were thrown in there. No one else that they knew was in there, though. So, there stayed huddled up in one of the corners.

"… Um, Yami? What are we gonna do when we get to island?" Yugi asked, trying to spark up a conversation. His yami had been quiet for about seven hours and he hadn't even fallen asleep. So, Yugi supposed he was still had at him.

"…" Yami grunted.

"Aw, come on, Yami! You can't be mad at me forever!"

"Watch me." he turned around. "…"

"B-But it wasn't my fault! Marik's taller than me… you might have had better luck… And I did tell you to go! But all you and Otogi did was force me out of the line!"

"…"

"You are so cruel."

There was a moment of silence until Yami turned around and sighed, "I guess so. And I guess we're not going to get very far while we're fighting."

Yugi smiled cheerfully, "That's right."

"…But we don't really have a way to get off this ship."

"Yeah… we're probably thousands of miles from Domino by now. And I don't we wanna try to swim that distance. But… maybe we could get to another town and make our way back to Domino on land…?"

"No. I don't think that would work."

"I think you're right."

Yami stood up and looked behind them at the side of the ship, "Look, Yugi. A hole in the wall."

"Really?" Yugi took a look, "Wow. I'm surprised we haven't sunk to the bottom of the ocean by now. That's a pretty big hole."

In reality, the hole was only about the size of a small orange, but it looked big to Yugi because… well, he's small.

Yami leaned his head on the wall and peeked through the hole, "I-I can see another ship right in front of us. It must be one of the others that Marik sent out."

"Maybe our friends are on that ship."

Yami nodded, "Maybe. But there's no way of contacting him. We'll have to wait till the ships dock so we can talk to them."

"But what good will that do us?! We'll be where Marik wanted us. On a frozen island in the Antarctic!"

"Well, what can we do?!"

----------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, Marik and Malik had gone back into the castle and were just awaiting the ship's arrival at the island. Marik had an entire room built for the occasion. Complete with a giant screen T.V, four big Lazy-Boy chairs, and a Soda machine. Marik wanted to enjoy his archenemy's final hours.

"How can you be so sure that Yami and Yugi will be eaten, Marik?" Malik asked, "I mean, they could be the ones doing the eating."

"You kidding? They're small and they look like things that are good to eat. Of course they'll be eaten. Probably first."

As Marik and Malik sat down in their new Lazy-Boys, Malik giggled, "W-Wouldn't it be cool if Yugi and his friends took turns taking a bite out each other?

"… Heh. Yeah, that sounds a lot like them. They're so worried about each other, they'd probably do something stupid… like divide themselves up so everyone could eat."

"Hey Marik…? Say we were in Yami and Yugi's position. Would you really eat me?"

"What?!" Marik faced the other way, "I'm not answering that."

"Why, ya scared?" Malik pinched his yami's cheeks, "Come on and tell me. I promise I won't get mad."

"Leave me alone."

"P-please?!" he made a puppy-dog face, "Marik…?!"

"Fine! Okay!" Marik looked at Malik carefully, "I guess… I would eat you."

"…Oh, you are sick, Mister!"

"Huh?!"

"That's disgusting. I wouldn't eat you."

"Y-You practically beg me to answer your ridiculous question and you promised that you wouldn't get mad! Now your all bent out of shape because I gave you an honest answer?!"

"That's right."

"Oh, for Ra's sake! If you're a hungry person, you're going to eat something!"

"Not me!"

"Change the subject. Now."

There was a moment of silence. Then Malik looked at the other two chairs next to theirs, "… Is there someone else that's going to watch this, too?"

"Hmm? Oh, yeah. Bakura's going to try and talk Ryou into watching along with us. I think it'll be good for him. He needs a little excitement in his life."

"I dunno, Marik… This kinda stuff seems too hardcore for Ryou. He'd be better off watching something like Tiny Tots. Not Cannibal Island."

"…Hey! That's a great idea!"

"We're going to have Ryou watch Tiny Tots…?"

"No, dummy! We're going to name the show Cannibal Island! Just like Survivor has it's own name, this is gonna be like a reality show too, right? It makes perfect sense."

"Um… wait a minute-"

"Marik!" Just then the door to the room busted open and Seto Kaiba walked in from the hallway. "Marik, I have to talk to you!"

About six or seven panting guards ran in after him, "S-Sorry, Master Marik… he g-got away from us…!"

"What the hell do I keep you around for if you can't do your job?!" Marik jumped out of his seat.

"S-Sorry, sir."

Kaiba growled, "Marik, where is Mokuba?!"

Marik sat back down., "How should I know? Somewhere in the ocean, I guess."

He gasped, "The ocean?! You drowned my brother! I'm gonna kill you-"

"Relax. I never drowned anyone. Let's just say he's on a cruise."

"Don't play with me, Marik! I saw you on T.V saying that you were going to torture and kill every one of your prisoners. Mokuba was with you!"

"He was. And I only said that because I wanted Yami to come here faster. All I did was send all the prisoners to an island. I told you, he's practically on vacation. So, relax…"

"Yeah," Malik added, "You should be happy. Soon, your brother will be on T.V."

"What?"

"It's a reality show we made up."

"Cannibal Island."

Kaiba tilted his head, "Cannibal… Cannibal…? Cannibal. C-Cannibal Island! What the hell is wrong with you, Marik?! What is Cannibal Island?!"

"Oh, I get tired of explaining this." Marik turned to his hikari, "You tell him."

"Well, me and Marik shipped everyone to a Antarctic island. It's small, frozen, and there's no food. In short, they're going to have to eat each other. We've set up cameras all over the island and we can watch all the action from here. The boats should get there soon, they left this morning. Mokuba's on one of the ships."

"Y-you… what?" Kaiba took a step back, "Where is this island?!"

"Eh… Somewhere by Antarctica. We dropped the old people off somewhere around there last week." Marik answered.

Kaiba didn't waste anytime and rushed out the door.

Malik sighed, "He could've at least said goodbye."

--------------------------------------------

The boats were rocking and beginning to go faster as they neared their destination. The captains had kicked the gear into over drive and they were speeding rapidly on the high seas.

"Oh, Yami…" Yugi groaned, "I don't feel good."

Since the ship started going faster, Yugi's face started turning green and blue. He put his head between his knees and moaned for about a half hour.

"Come on, Yugi. Don't throw up. I'm wearing my good shoes, and I can't buy anymore."

"I-Is that all you c-care about…? Your damn shoes?!"

"If you mess these up, I'll be walking around barefoot!"

"Oh…"

Eventually, Yugi did throw up. Not all over Yami's shoes ,though (It was all over his own shoes).

In less than an hour, Cannibal Island came into view of all three ships. They steadily began to dock on the side of the small, frigid island and prepared to unload the passengers. 


	12. Welcome to Cannibal Island

A Tale of Two Kings

Chapter 12:

Marik and Malik watched the giant T.V screen as the boats docked on all sides of the island. Marik sent his hikari to go get Bakura and Ryou so that they could watch all the action from the very beginning.

Malik came back in less than five minutes, with Bakura walking behind him and Ryou was being dragged into the room with little force.

"No! I don't want to see my friends' horrible, ghastly death! I won't do it!" Ryou screamed as Bakura dropped him in the center of the room.

"You know," Marik said, slurping his soda, "You think about things way too much, Ryou. Enjoy the simple pleasures in life."

"Like watching people get eaten by their fellow human beings." Malik added.

"But-"

"So, sit." Bakura took Ryou by the collar of his shirt and dumped him into the chair between him and Malik.

All four of them watched the T.V screen as the boats let down their ramps and began to unload the passengers.

------------------------------------

The former prisoners on the first ship were rushing and trampling over each other to get off the boat. They were highly excited about their vacation and couldn't wait a minute longer.

On the third ship, Yami and Yugi were hiding in the very back of the ship while all the others rushed out into the unknown. They were hoping that by staying in the shadows, the ships would take them back to Domino.

As the last of the people exited the boat and Yami and his hikari thought they were safe, two guards entered. They searched the other corners and finally came to Yugi and Yami.

"What are you two doing here?" One of them asked, "Get out there with the rest."

Yugi stepped forward, "Please, could you let us go back to Domino with you? We'll be quiet."

The guard thought for a minute, "…Yeah, sure. Why not."

"Really?!"

"No." he said flatly, "Now, get out there before I have to get physical."

"… Define physical."

"Go!"

Yami and Yugi were thrown out onto the ice and before they could get up, the boats pulled up the ramps and started to sail away.

"No, wait!" Yugi screamed, "You can't leave us here!"

Despite Yugi's desperate cries, the boats sailed quickly out into the ocean and were soon out of sight. Both Yami and Yugi sighed and looked behind them at their new surroundings.

The island was the definition of despair. It was small, cold and covered in confused looking people. They had all started to realize that Marik was lying to them when he said they were going to an exotic island.

"Hey!" one man called out, "This isn't Tahiti!"

"Maybe this is just where we catch the next boat…" Another person said.

"Marik lied to us!"

Finally, the others began to understand that Marik had dumped them on the island with no intension of letting them off. Of course, they were now upset. But there was little they could do about it. In less than a minute all of the prisoners were no longer happy or confused, but moaning, groaning, sad people. They began to cry and stomp their feet on the ice.

Yami looked at his hikari, "It's about time they realized all of this."

"I was beginning to wonder if they'd ever figure it out." Yugi replied, "…Well, we might as well find the others. They should be around here somewhere."

"You look that way and I'll go this way."

They split up and started to search for their friends. Yami went to the left and tried to push his way through the crowds of men and women. He wasn't having much luck at first but then he heard a small, choked-up cry. Yami looked down at the big tuft of black hair that the cry had come from.

"… Are you okay?" He asked.

The ball of hair looked up, "…Y-Yami! I'm glad I found you!"

"Mokuba?" Yami helped Kaiba's brother up, "Mokuba, that's right, Kaiba told me that you were taken as well."

"Yeah. I've been waiting to see a familiar face for weeks. Do you know where we are?"

"Not really, but-"

"Yami!" Yugi came from the other side with Joey, Mai, Otogi, Tristan and Serenity behind him. "I found them all. Oh! Mokuba, you're here!"

"Hi, Yugi." He wiped his faced with his sleeve, "I'm glad to see you all. And I'm glad we're out of Marik's castle. Anywhere is better than there."

"Not anywhere." Joey said, "You probably don't know this Mokuba, but… well, Marik's plan is to-"

"Hey!" a man said, "I just thought of something! There's no food on this island, is there?"

Everyone looked at each other and shrugged.

"It's a frozen piece of nothing!" He continued, "We'll starve!"

Mokuba turned back to Joey, "Is that what you were trying to say, Joey? Marik is going to starve us to death?"

"He's a sick one." Mai shook her head in pity, "But I guess we'll have to make the best out of it here."

"How?" Otogi asked, "We're stuck on a frozen island. The only thing we can eat is either ice or each other."

"What?! That's gross, man."

"That's Marik. I wouldn't put it past that slime ball to come up with something like this. He spends half his day thinking of ways to torture people."

"Well, we're not going to eat each other!" Yugi and Yami stated, "We're going to have to find something edible on this island."

"There's nothing. We can see the other end from here, and look, not a edible thing in sight."

"That's fine, Mai." Serenity said, "I'm not hungry right now anyway."

"Sis, I think you need to consider tomorrow." Joey looked at her, "Or the day after… Sooner or later, our stomach's are gonna growl and we'll look around for something yummy."

"Now that I think about it…" Tristan eyed Yami, "You don't look too bad. A little salt and-"

"No!" Yugi smacked Tristan on the head, "We're not eating anyone!"

"Then what are we gonna do for fun?!"

There was a moment of silence.

"…We will just have to figure this out. All we have to do is wait… then, I'm sure we'll get an idea to save ourselves. In the meantime…" Yugi looked around at the other people who were beginning to panic and lick other people, "Uh, in the meantime, we'll have to watch out for each other."

----------------------------------------

"Oh this is great! They've only been there for twenty minutes and already they're starting to worry about food." Marik was reclining in his chair with the remote in one hand and a half empty soda bottle in the other.

"Yugi and Yami seem to be keeping calm heads." Ryou said, thoughtfully, "If no one else will be looking at the logical side, at least I know they will be."

Bakura tilted his head towards Malik, "How long do you think it'll take for them all to get eaten?"

"Eh… it depends on who gets hungry first. If it's some crazy, fat man… they'll all be gone in less than two days."

"I hope it's longer than two days." Marik said, "I want this long and dragged out."

"That's sick, Marik." Ryou sipped his soda, "Have you no shame?"

"Aw, come on. Can you honestly think of a better way to spend a Saturday afternoon? This is quality T.V here. That's why I'm taping the whole thing."

"You're what?!" They all looked at him.

"That's right." Marik nodded, "We're talking DVDs and VHS, folks. This is the show of the century. My long awaited revenge on Yami and Yugi! Oh, how the mighty have fallen."

----------------------------------------

About three hours later, the people on Cannibal Island really started to get hungry. In order to keep the peace, Yami, Yugi and their group found a way to try and get some food. They tied their shoestrings to some sticks and used them as fishing poles.

"Just wait and see," Yugi said cheerfully to the hungry people behind him, "We'll have fish in no time!"

Joey cast his fishing pole into the icy water again, "Uh, Yugi? What are we gonna use to cook the fish? We ain't gonna eat them raw, are we?"

"Of course not. We'll use these stick to make a fire and cook them."

"But if we use the only sticks here… how are we gonna cook the next batch?"

"…" Yugi thought for a minute, "…We'll cross that bridge when we get to it, Joey."

There was about a thirty minute silence before Mokuba's stick started to wiggle around in his small hands.

"Hey! I think I got a bite!" he struggled with the pole and tried to pull the fish up, "Ooh, it feels like a big one!"

"Let us take it from here, Mokuba." Joey and Tristan ran over and took the fishing pole away from him.

At first, it seemed like they were beginning to reel the fish in but as it drew closer to the little piece of ice that they were on, it seemed to get stronger.

"Ugh! I don't know how much longer we can play tug o' war, Yugi! It's too big!" Tristan yelled to his small friend.

"Well…" Yugi looked at his yami, "I guess they'll have to let it go. We can't let them be dragged into the water.

"You're right." Yami called to Joey and Tristan, "Just let it go!"

They nodded and were about to release the pole, but finally the fish came up and slammed into the ice. Everyone would've been celebrating but it turned out the large fish was not a fish at all.

"Ra, what the hell is it?!" Yami took a step back, as did everyone else.

"It's some kind of… whale." Mai said, "We've got to get it off of here, we can't eat a whale!"

"Tell me about it… what kind of sauce do you put on a whale?"

As they were talking it over, the whale was already taking up half the space of the island. It was tilting the little piece of ice so much that the opposite end was up in the air.

All the people started to slip and slide to the other side where the whale was trashing around. Yami and Yugi were some of the last ones who were hanging onto the edge.

"Yami, what do we do?!" Yugi was struggling with his grip on the ice, "Everyone down there is getting smashed by his tail!"

"I know, we have to figure out some way to get him off the damn island!"

"…We have to push him off! It's the only way!"

"Push a whale?! That would take more than two people!"

"We're just gonna have to try, Yami! If we don't, Marik will win even before we die of hunger! We'll be known to the rest of the world as whale bait!"

"But I'm scared of whales!"

"Wha…?!"

Meanwhile, the people down with the whale were trying to do what Yugi was talking about: Push him off. Of course, it was harder than it sounds because the whale was still trashing and trying to get back into the water.

Finally, Yugi let go of his place on the ice and forced his yami to do the same. They fell right on top of the whale and at the same time, everyone else was pushing. So, combined they were able to shove the large sea mammal off their island.

The island bounced back to it's former position on the ocean and everyone sighed with relief.

"…Maybe fishing isn't the way to go." Mai said once she caught her balance, "We almost got killed!"

"That's okay." Yugi smiled wryly, "We'll just… um, think of something else. We can last at least that long." 


	13. It can't end like this!

A Tale of Two Kings

Chapter 13:

Everyone on Cannibal Island survived the night and made it into the morning. Of course, there now was a huge difference in their attitudes towards each other. It had been almost two entire days since they last had anything to eat. And they were starting to wonder if humans really did taste like chicken.

"Cut it out, Serenity!" Joey pushed his sister away for the fifth time, "I'm not chicken. Don't lick me."

"But, Joey! I'm so very hungry!" She cried.

"I said that you'd be hungry today but you didn't listen. Oh, I won't be hungry! I could go for weeks without food! Take that, Marik! Sound like someone you know?"

"Joey!"

Yami rolled onto his side and looked up at the sun, or what was left of the sun. It had been dark and cloudy ever since they got to the island. And that wasn't helping the icy island situation. It was really cold and, because of the way he dresses, Yami wasn't warming up.

"T-This is t-too c-c-cold!" he shivered, "I-I'm gonna f-freeze!"

Yugi shrugged, "I don't know what to tell you, Yami. You shouldn't have worn a shirt with no sleeves."

"F-F-Freeze…"

"Yugi," Mokuba looked at him, "You were in Domino last, right? So how's my brother doing?"

"Ah… Well, the last time I talked to him, he sounded okay. But Yami really saw him last. You should ask him."

"H-He was a s-stubborn jerk… Like a-a-always."

"Oh."

"Come on, Yami! Don't say that." Yugi looked back at him, "… Hmm. Speaking of family members, I just thought of something!"

"What?"

Yugi stood up and ran to the other side of the island. Joey, Mai, and Otogi followed him.

"What are you doing, Yugi?" Joey called out.

He didn't answer, but when he got to the edge he waved his hands over his head, "Look, Joey! See how close we are to that large piece of land?!"

Otogi shrugged, "So what? That's just Antarctica. There wouldn't be any people over there that could help us, anyway."

"Yeah, but remember what Marik said about sending the old people to Antarctica? They should be right there!" he waved his arms even faster, "Grandpa! Grandpa, can you see me?! It's me, Yugi!"

"He's totally lost it." Mai whispered.

------------------------------------

Back in domino, Marik, Malik, Ryou, and Bakura were still watching the T.V screen. They hadn't moved from they're spot since it started yesterday. Even Ryou was getting into the spirit, he was laughing and talking to the screen from time to time.

"I never thought Yugi would be the first one to go crazy." Ryou said.

Marik grinned, "I was hoping it would be Yami but Yugi is just as good."

"Is his grandfather really in Antarctica?"

"Well, yeah. Yugi's actually right. His granddad is right there but there's no way that he could here them yelling."

"Why not?" Malik asked.

"Because, before I put them on the boats, I took away all their hearing aids." He began to laugh viciously, "It was hilarious! They couldn't hear a word each other said and they were running around, (if you can call that running) trying to get away!"

"Marik, that's cruel!" Ryou shook his head, "How would you like it if someone took away your hearing aid?!"

"I don't have one. Besides, that's what they get for being old."

-------------------------------------

"Yugi, come on man!" Joey was trying to pry his friend away from the edge of the ice, "Your grandpa ain't over there, let it go!"

"But! But! Grandpa!" He called out while struggling to stand in his spot.

"Yugi!"

Eventually, Tristan and Otogi had to come help Joey lift Yugi up. Yugi might have been small but he knew how to dig his heels into the ice so that he would be hard to move.

They set him back down next to Yami, "You can't go around drawing attention to yourself like that." Otogi said.

Yugi tilted his head, "…What do you mean?"

"Look around, man. Everyone here is seriously starting to lose it."

"Right," Tristan added, "We might still be sane, but there are other people who aren't as sophisticated as we are. They're really hungry and I think it's in our best interest to-"

"Ahhh!" A shrill and piercing scream came from less than twenty yards away on the ice, "Stop it, please!"

"What was that?" They all looked in that direction and out of a crowd of people came a young lady running frantically around.

"Please, stop!" she cried as another girl chased her to the edge of the icy plain.

The girl that was chasing her ran extremely fast and jumped on the screaming lady, "I'm sorry, sister!" she yelled from on top of the other woman, "But I need food!"

"No! Please!"

Mai looked at her friends, "See that? That woman's so hungry, she'll eat her own sister! This is getting dangerous."

"We need to help her!" Serenity said, "That could be one of us tomorrow! We've gotta save her!"

Joey shook his head, "You nuts? I don't think we should interfere with something that has nothing to do with us."

"Ahh!" The woman's screams were heard again.

"I'm coming!" Serenity got up and rushed over into the large crowd. She jumped on both women and began to wrestle the one who meant to eat her sister.

Tristan grinned, "Ooh, catfight."

"Serenity!" Joey jumped into the crowd and tried to brake it up. Unfortunately, by the time that he got there, the lady had already taken a bite out of Serenity.

Joey pulled the other woman off his sister and he saw her on the floor moaning and groaning. "Sis, are you alright?!"

"Oh… Joey, how do I look? Am I going to live?"

He took a closer look at her and found that no damage had been done to her body. But when he turned her around he found what the other woman had tried to eat… her hair. There was now a huge bald spot in the middle of Serenity's head.

Joey had to stifle his laughter.

"What is it?" She asked, "What did that awful lady do to me?!"

"Well, Serenity… um, she bit-"

"Hey, is she okay?!" The rest of the gang came running over at top speed, "What happened?"

When they saw what had happened to Joey's sister, they were now the ones having to suppress their chuckles and giggles.

"What is everyone so happy about?!" She yelled, "I was just attacked!"

Joey shook his head and got serious with her, "Well, you deserve what you got! I told you not to get involved!"

"…Sorry."

"Wait a minute!" A large, sturdy looking man from the crowd got on top of a rock and yelled over all the chattering, "I'm tired of this! I'm hungry and I want food! From now on it's every man, woman, and child for himself! As for me…" he pointed to Mokuba, "I'm getting me a little, juicy one!"

"H-Huh?" Mokuba took a step back.

The man jumped off the rock and began to jog towards Mokuba at an alarming rate, "Food!"

At almost that exact second, everyone on the island started to jump on some else and tried to rip them to shreds. It was like they all converted back to their cavemen selves and the only thing on their minds was meat to fill their stomachs.

"Y-Yugi!" was Mokuba's last cry before the swarms of people covered his figure.

"Oh, no! Mokuba!" Yugi looked back at Yami, "We can't let that man devour him!"

Yami was backing up from the hungry mob of people that was forming around him, "We've got our own situation, Yugi, look out!" he pointed behind his hikari.

"Wha…?" Yugi turned around and immediately began running from three people who were nipping at his heels, "Oh my Ra! Yami, help me!"

Meanwhile, the rest of Yugi's friends weren't doing any better. They were running for their lives and trying to beat the cannibals off of their bodies, but found it hard when they were so determined to eat them.

"Uh, god!" Otogi yelled, kicking some man off of Mai, "They just keep coming!"

"Well, hurry up and get him off!" Mai yelled back, "He just took a chomp out of my best pair of pumps!"

Tristan was right next to them, he was getting a group of women off Joey, "Hang on, man! I'm coming!"

"Mrm!" A mumbled cry from underneath the pile. Joey's hand could be seen coming up from the mob of ladies on top of him. Tristan grabbed at it and pulled Joey up to the surface.

He panted and rubbed sweat from his forehead, "T-Thanks, Tristan."

"Run now! Talk later!" He started running and yelled back for his friend to do the same. There was another group of men and women jogging after them.

They were running to where they really didn't know. The entire island was covered with people screaming and their friends were all around them, but Tristan and Joey were in no condition to help them out. They had stopped to catch their breath, but not even a short moment could be spared, because as soon as they stopped, a load of people jumped on them.

-------------------------------------

The small audience in Domino was now highly interested in what was going on over seas. All four of them. Their eyes were practically glued to the screen. But, of course, no one was enjoying this like Marik.

"Did you see that?!" Marik fell back into his chair, laughing like a madman, "I-It's too much! This is hilarious!"

"Oh my…" Ryou had previously closed his eyes when all the carnage began and his eyes had stayed shut for the last twenty minutes. "This is awful… Tell me when it's over, Bakura!"

"…" Bakura was in a trance. He hadn't seen this much face-eating since Silence of the Lambs. "Wow…"

"Bakura! Don't tell me you're actually enjoying this!" Ryou said.

"Not now, Ryou…" he shushed his hikari, "Tell me after this part…" 

"You enjoying this, Malik?" Marik asked, eyes still glued to the screen.

Malik tilted his head to the side, "I… I've never seen someone's spine bend that way."

"Yeah, that's pretty co- Ooh!" Marik, Bakura, and Malik leaned back in their recliners after seeing a remarkably large chunk being ripped out of someone.

"Boom baby!" Bakura jumped out of his seat and yelled, "That's what I'm talking about!"

Ryou refused to let go of his soda and continued to slurp it with his eyes closed, "This is all a bad dream! This is all a bad dream! This is all a bad dream!" he repeated.

Malik shook his head in pity, "They're all goners."

"Heh." Marik laughed, "Look at Yugi and Yami run. There's no where you can go, now. Run all you want, but you can't hide!"

------------------------------------

Yugi and Yami were being chased by almost half the population of the island. The others were off at different corners of the icy plain, fighting for their lives. While Yugi had been running, he tried to look for Mokuba. But he hadn't seen Mokuba since this all began.

'I hope that big man didn't get to him.' he thought as he ran, 'Poor Mokuba…!'

Soon, there was no where left to go. They had reached the edge of the small island. Yami didn't realize that they had gotten to the end until he took a step back and his foot didn't touch any ground. The hungry people surrounded them on all sides and there was no sign of a miracle.

"Oh, no. This isn't good." Yugi said, hiding behind his yami, "What do we do now?"

"You mean besides wait for the end? I dunno."

The large, starving crowds began to jump on top of the two spiky-headed boys. Yugi cringed, 'It can't end like this! It just can't!' 


	14. A guy in a helicopter

A Tale of Two Kings

Chapter 14:

The island was covered in the starving cannibals. No one was safe on this frozen island of shrieking horror and man-eating humans. Less than an hour ago, they had all decided to leave their modern, civilized ways and get food the easy way. By jumping on top of each other and biting whatever they could.

"Help! Please!" Yugi's last muffled cries as he and his yami sunk below the gathering crowd.

There was about a minute of muted silence. All that was seen could only be seen and no longer heard. No more yelling. No more anguished cries for help. As if the entire scene had the volume turned all the way down.

Yugi was more or less thrown aside of the large groups. He opened his eyes slightly and waited for the people to eat him as well.

Then there was a distant sound of wings. 'Oh my Ra…' Yugi thought, 'I'm hallucinating. Well, either that… or the angels have come for me.'

The sound grew louder and more mechanical. Less like wings and more like a loud whooping sound.

Yugi opened his eyes all the way and what he then saw, hovering above the small island, was enough to knock him out. He looked up at a helicopter. A silver one with the letters KC on the side.

'What?' Yugi watched as it lowered and the other people started to notice the aircraft as well. They backed off of the others that they were trying to tear apart just to see the helicopter come closer to the surface.

It didn't land, just hovered. About ten to twenty feet above the ground level. Instead of coming all the way down, the door slid open and a latter dropped down onto the floor. What happened next was most unexpected. Kaiba appeared holding onto the side of the door.

With a megaphone in his hand he yelled, "Mokuba! Are you all right?"

Since all the people were standing still, Kaiba could see a ball of black hair starring back up at him, which he knew to be his younger brother.

His clothes in shreds and his face scuffed up, Mokuba smiled brighter than he ever had before and climbed the rope-latter that his brother threw down.

"Seto!" He called up, "We need to get the others!"

Kaiba grimaced and made a gesture for Mokuba to hurry it up. Mokuba looked around and saw Yugi and Yami standing about thirty feet away. "Let's go, guys!"

Yugi and Yami started running over to the latter, and Otogi, Joey, Tristan and the others followed.

"Hi, Seto!" Mokuba got inside first. "This is a surprise!"

When everyone was inside the helicopter, they sighed happily, "Oh, Kaiba, thank you for coming to save us!" Mai and Serenity squealed.

"I didn't come to save you." He said coldly, "I came to get Mokuba. As far as I'm concerned, you're all baggage."

Joey rolled his eyes, "Same old Kaiba."

Seto went back to the controls and began to lift the helicopter higher into the sky, "Same old mutt." he mumbled.

"What?! I ain't a dog-" Joey began, but was shushed by the rocking of the aircraft. It was rocking from side to side, "What's going on, Kaiba? Can't you drive this thing?!"

"That's not me! There's something holding us down."

They all looked out the window and saw that all the people still on the island were tugging and pulling on the latter that hung from the side of the helicopter.

"Take us with you!" They cried. "We're sorry we tried to eat you! We're sorry!"

"Yeah, right." Tristan said, "They just wanna come up here and finish the job."

Serenity sighed, "Aw, come on… They said they were sorry. We should let them up. They don't deserve to die on that awful piece of nothing."

"You must've lost your damn mind." Kaiba pushed the control stick forward and attempted to move again. "We're not going to let cannibals in here. You better be glad I let you on."

Mokuba and Yugi watched as the people below grabbed onto the latter and were ready to ride back to Domino on the outside of the helicopter.

"They're on the latter, Seto!" Mokuba said, "I don't think they wanna stay there."

Kaiba moved the control back and forth to try and shake them off, "Let go, you bunch of loonies!" He called down.

Despite the violent yelling and screaming from inside the craft, the people hanging onto the latter were not intending to let go. They didn't want to have to go back to eating each other.

"We're going to have to cut the rope, Seto." Mokuba said. Kaiba handed his brother a pocketknife and Mokuba began to saw the rope.

"Hurry, Mokuba!" Mai cried, "They're starting to climb up here!"

"I'm going as fast as I can!"

The rope was kind of thick and for every chunk that Mokuba cut from it, the people climbed another foot or two. They were almost within reach of the door until Mokuba cut the last strand.

They fell with the rope all the way down to the ice and stayed there. "Wait! Wait for us!" They yelled as the helicopter lifted higher and was soon out of sight.

"Whew." Yugi sighed, "That was too close. So, Kaiba, did you finally decide to help us defeat Marik?"

"No. I just came here to get Mokuba before he was eaten. Since I picked you all up as well, I'll drop you off in Domino. Whatever you do after that will be your own business."

Yami whispered to Yugi, "Somehow, I knew he was going to say that."

------------------------------------

Meanwhile, back in Domino, Marik had thrown the remote control into the center of his large T.V and broke the screen into a bunch of pieces.

"Damn it!" He shouted, "How the hell did Kaiba get there so fast?!"

"Talk about timing." Ryou sighed, "Kaiba couldn't have cut it any closer. Man, he's good."

"You mean, you think he planned to save them all like that?" Bakura asked.

"Well, not all of them. But, Mokuba, yes."

"I don't care what he planned!" Marik kicked his chair violently and then sat in it, "… Jeez. Let's see… what to do…?"

"Marik, you know that they're coming here to take the millennium puzzles back, right?" Bakura said, "What are you going to do?"

"Hmm. Maybe I can send someone out to just shoot their helicopter down in the middle of the ocean… that might work… But, then again…"

There was about a moment of silence while Marik paced around the floor in a small circle. He mumbled to himself and bit his nails till they were almost gone.

"Marik!" Malik shook his yami by the shoulders, "Relax. I think I've got an idea."

"Huh? Y-you've got an idea, Malik?"

"Uh-huh!" He nodded happily.

"…Since when did you start getting ideas?"

"Hey! I've always had ideas! You just choose to ignore them."

"Oh, yeah. Okay, then… what've you got?"

"Well," Malik sat down in his chair, "I think we should just let them come."

"You've gotta be kidding."

"No, I'm not."

"… I knew this would happen. Ideas and you just don't mix, Malik. All this thinking has fried your brain."

"Listen, it'll work. We just let them come as far as the gate outside. They don't know that we've been watching them, right? So they think that they have the element of surprise, but they don't. We know their every move."

"… Okay. So, maybe your brain hasn't been fried. But what do we do once they get to the gate? We can't just let them stroll in."

"I've got that end covered, too." He giggled evilly, "I had a hunch that something like this would happen when Kaiba ran out of here yesterday. So, I had a little chat with some very famous guys from northern Japan."

"You knew this would happen?! Why didn't you tell me?"

"I said I had a hunch! Besides, if I told you then… I wouldn't be able to try out my plan today!"

"Oh, you are hopeless."

"Relax! They won't get very far. I swear it."

------------------------------------

They had been flying high in the skies for about an hour and Kaiba had a pounding headache. All the chattering from the back seats weren't so bad, but the happy squeals and giggles were enough to make anyone slit his wrists.

"All right, that is enough!" He yelled towards the back, "I'm tired of hearing Marik this and Marik that! Talk about something else."

"Like what?" Otogi asked.

"I don't know… the stock market, dueling, anything that isn't about Marik. That's all I've been hearing for the past hour."

"Well, you can't blame us." Yugi said, "I mean, we thought we were people food and then you snatched us from the jaws of death."

"That was very brave of you, Kaiba!" Serenity added.

"It wasn't brave!" He shouted, "I didn't snatch you from the jaws of death! I just came to get my brother, and you freeloaders hopped in! I'm not your knight in shining armor! I'm a guy in a helicopter and you're all stressing me out!"

"Somebody's cranky." Mai whispered.

"I heard that." Kaiba said, "And yes, I'm cranky. This is no picnic for me. Chauffeuring a bunch of Anti-Marik hippies around the globe is not my idea of a nice way to spend a Sunday."

"Aw, come on, Seto." Mokuba laughed, "They're just excited to be off the island. Next stop, Domino City!" 


	15. Jump in

A Tale of Two Kings

Chapter 15:

Kaiba had to drive the helicopter all through the night in order to get from point A to point B. He'd fallen asleep at the controls once and they almost fell out of the sky. Then he and Joey got into an argument and Kaiba was extremely close to tossing him out the window. But through it all, Kaiba had managed to keep his sanity.

"We've got about ten minutes until we land." Seto said. "You all better be ready."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Yami asked, "What're we getting ready for?"

"I'm not landing. If any of Marik's guards see me they'll no doubt try to arrest me on sight. Marik knows that I picked you all up."

Joey tilted his head, "How does he know that?"

"It doesn't matter. Point is, I'm not landing."

"Well, how do you expect us to get to Marik's castle? We can't go with you, Kaiba." Yugi said.

"I know that! I'm going to fly past the castle and you'll have to jump."

"Huh!?" They all leaned back in horror, "What do you mean?!"

"Am I speaking Spanish? I said jump. I only have one parachute, though." He smirked, "So, you all will have to share."

"You're joking!"

"I don't joke. You either take the parachute, or you freefall. Your choice."

"Seto, are you serious?!" Mokuba asked, "I can't believe you only have one. Don't you have enough for everyone?"

"No." he shifted the controls, "We're going to be flying about a mile south from the castle in about two minutes, so what's it going to be? I don't have all day."

Yugi sighed and picked up the parachute from the floor, "Okay, Kaiba. We'll take the parachute. Come on, guys, let's get ready."

"Yugi, how do you expect us all to fit in that?!" Mai asked.

"… I figure we could have the tallest person in the straps first. And then the next person could hang onto their heels. Like a chain. It might not be comfortable, but it'll get us down there with most of our limbs."

Kaiba was trying extremely hard not to bust out laughing. His face was actually turning blue.

"You're a nut." Tristan shook his head, "I'm not going for that. There are too many of us for your plan to work. We'd all be so heavy that the parachute would fall right through the air! We'd all die before we got to Marik's front door."

Kaiba couldn't hold it in any longer, "Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Tee hee hee hee!"

Yugi ignored Kaiba's howling, "Anyway. I was going to say that Mai and Serenity should stay with Kaiba."

This stopped Kaiba's incessant giggling immediately, "H-Huh?! What the hell do you mean stay with Kaiba?! I'm no babysitter!"

"Please, Kaiba. We can't get down with all these people."

"It's not my fault if you all die. I'm just the delivery boy."

"Wait a minute!" Mai protested, "I think I should get a say in this! Why can't I go with you guys? Kaiba's no fun!"

Seto rolled his eyes.

"Yugi's right, Mai." Joey said, "Stay with Kaiba. It'd be too dangerous for you and Serenity anyway."

"I'm opening the hatch." Seto said, "Are you gonna jump or not?"

Yugi nodded. He gave the parachute to Tristan and he slid it over his head. Then Otogi, Joey, Yami, and Yugi prepared to grab his feet as they jumped.

Without much warning, Seto opened the door and Tristan jumped out with the rest of the guys following.

"Good luck!" Mokuba, Serenity, and Mai called after them. Kaiba only grunted and shut the door.

---------------------------------------

Malik had previously sent his yami up in the highest room of the castle. He wanted to get his plan ready and Marik was freaking out because he didn't think anything would work. Bakura was keeping him company until Malik came back. Bakura was playing his Gameboy and Marik was breathing deep, trying to relax.

Little beeping noises were coming from the Gameboy in Bakura's hands. Marik looked up at him, "Couldn't you be a little quieter?"

"What do you mean?" His eyes didn't leave the little screen.

"Those beeping noises."

"…What noises?"

"Your game is making beeping noises!" Marik started to cry, "Why?! Is the whole world against me?!"

"What the hell…?" Bakura winced, "Marik, you're totally PMSing. Chill out."

"How can I chill out when you're beeping?!"

Just then, Malik opened the door, "What's going on in here?" He looked at his yami, sitting in the corner, "Marik, why are you crying?"

"Yami and Yugi are coming, my life is falling apart, and now Bakura's bothering meeeeeee!"

"… Bakura, shame on you!"

"I didn't do anything!"

"Anyway," Malik closed the door behind him, "I'm done down stairs. So, Bakura, you can go wait with Ryou. I doubt they'll get that far, though."

Bakura nodded and as he left the room, he whispered to Malik, "Marik's losing it. Seriously."

"No," Malik whispered back, "He's only like that because Lifetime stopped showing reruns of Designing Women."

"Oh, I see." he then walked out.

"Marik, I swear, this is going to work. No one's going to steal the millennium puzzles, so stop being dramatic."

Marik sniffed, "I guess so."

"You'll see. Everyone down stairs is chipper and ready to work. It's all set up and everything's going to be hunky-dory!"

"Uh… I don't know what you just said, but is sounds promising."

-------------------------------------

All five of the boys were clinging tightly to each other's feet as if they were the toes of life. They hadn't fallen out of the sky and they'd been up there for about five minutes, but their altitude was rapidly declining because of all the weight.

"We're about to land!" Yugi called up the line, "Get ready!"

"You mean get ready to die!" Otogi yelled down at him, "This isn't going to work!"

The ground got larger as the parachute began to plummet towards the grass. Yami shut his eyes, "Otogi, look on the bright side of things for once!"

"What bright side?!"

"… We might not die!"

"You are a terrible motivational speaker, Yami!" Otogi looked down, "Ahhh!"

Crash. Right into the ground. They were scattered across the front lawn of the castle. It took only about a minute for Tristan to stand up because, since he was the one holding onto the parachute, the least amount of damage was done to him.

"Hey…" he looked around, "You all okay?"

"I'm fine." Joey rose up from a bush with twigs in his hair.

Otogi and Yami were popping their arms back into place as they sat on the grass. But there was one person missing.

"Yugi?" Yami called out, "Where are you? Are you okay?"

It took a moment for him to answer, "I-I'm fine, Yami…"

Yami looked up at where his hikari's voice came from. He saw Yugi's small face and his pointy hair caught in a tree. "Yugi… get down from there."

"Well, I'd love to… but I'm not sure I can land on my feet."

Tristan walked under the tree and held out his arms, "Come on, Yugi, jump. I'll catch you."

"Eh…"

"Hurry it up! We're on a mission, remember?!"

"Okay…!" He fidgeted, "Give me a few minutes."

"You either jump or I'm going to shake the tree and make you fall like an acorn!"

That made Yugi loosen himself from the branch and jump. Of course, Tristan didn't catch him. He said that was what Yugi got for hesitating.

When everyone was okay and back in shape, they started for the front gate. It took them about five minutes or so to get to the actual gate.

"Finally." Yami said, "Okay, so let's go in and get our millennium puzzles back!"

The gate then opened, as if to invite them in. When the entire thing was wide open, Yami, Yugi, and their friends couldn't believe what they saw on the other side of the brick wall… 


	16. Three sacrifices

A Tale of Two Kings

Chapter 16:

They walked through the brick gate and awaiting them on the other side was the largest man any of them had ever seen. He stood right in front of the castle. He was pale, extremely fat and wearing some kind of… diaper. 

"Oh my god." Otogi gasped, "That's the biggest baby I've ever seen. Quick, someone get a camera! We could be on the six o' clock news!"

Tristan rolled his eyes, "Dude, that's not a baby. It's a sumo wrestler. He's supposed to be wearing a um, diaper."

"Hey!" Yugi called to him, "Are you lost or something? I don't think there's a wrestling match here, today."

Yami whispered, "Yugi, don't talk to strangers!"

The large man bowed shortly, "My name is Fuyumi. I was hired by Master Malik to defeat you."

"Huh?!" They took a few steps back, "Defeat us?! B-But we're not-"

Fuyumi didn't waste anytime in charging towards them. He tried to hit Yugi first, (because he's so tiny!) but he missed. Yugi rolled out of the way and Fuyumi hit the tree behind him instead.

With all the force from his hit, the tree fell over and crashed right into the ground. He wasn't hurt at all, though. He stood back up and looked around to see where his young targets were.

"This guy's totally serious!" Yugi said once he stood up again.

"What're we gonna do!?" Otogi asked.

Fuyumi turned around and was ready once again to go at it. It wouldn't be hard to hit them this time, because they were all collected in one little spot. He sprinted towards them and leaped up into the air.

"Whoa. Who knew that fat guys could jump that high." They all watched him go into the air. In a second, his shadow came directly over them.

"What's he doing?" Yami asked.

Before Fuyumi hit the ground, they had at least enough sense to figure out that he was about to body slam them. So, they moved.

But all this running and dodging was really taking it's toll on all five of them. When Fuyumi was getting back up and getting ready for his next attack, Tristan called out, "You guys go ahead!"

"What?!" Yami and Yugi looked at him, "Tristan, what're you talking about?! We can't just leave you here!"

"Right, man!" Joey added, "He'll crush you!"

"No way." Tristan said, "I weigh a whooping 150lbs! I can handle myself! Now, go!"

"Tristan, he weighs about 1000lbs!"

Fuyumi began to charge again and Tristan pushed his friends threw the gate door and shut it behind them, "Go!" he called through the wall, "Hurry it up!"

"Tristan!"

There was a large thud and then Tristan said wearily, "I-I'm okay… just go…!"

Yugi and Yami started running and Joey and Otogi followed. They did feel bad but Tristan did say that he was okay… but of course, they knew it was just a ploy to get them to carry on. They ran through the doors and were now in the castle's front room.

Joey started walked slower, "I hope that Fuyumi was all that Marik and Malik had for us. They probably didn't think we would get past him."

"Probably." Yugi said, "But we should hurry up and find them. We don't know what else is in here."

"Right. We're in enemy territory, now." Yami walked ahead and the rest of them followed quietly.

They were going along peacefully for about two minutes or so, but then Joey looked up and saw some kind of a shadow running across the walls. He got a little freaked out and began to walk a little faster.

"Um… guys?" He said in a low voice, "Can we hurry up?"

"What's wrong Joey?" They asked.

"No, nothing. It's just that I'd like to get there a little quicker." he looked up and the shadow ran across the walls again. "Way quicker!"

"Joey wait!" Yami stopped him as he tried to run away, "What's wrong?"

"T-There's something following us."

Yami, Yugi, and Otogi looked around and they didn't see anything but a bare hallway. They looked back at Joey and rolled their eyes, then kept walking.

"Come on, Joey." Otogi groaned, "You're hallucinating. We'll get there faster when you stop making up stories."

Flash. Another shadow showed itself to Joey on the wall and it didn't move.

"Look!" Joey called to his friends, "There it is!"

They looked back to where Joey was pointing and saw the human shaped shadow on the wall.

Yami starred, "Whoa… Who is it?"

"Aha!" Joey yelled, "In your face, Otogi! I told you that I wasn't making it up!"

The shadow left the wall and in a split second, a man landed on the floor right in front of them. He took one step to the side and another man came from behind him. They were dressed in black and had masks on their faces.

"What the hell are these guys?" Joey asked, "Not more sumo wrestlers!"

"Stupid. They're too skinny to be wrestlers. They're… um, well… they're in black, so they must be gothic."

Joey rolled his eyes, "See? You don't know anymore than me."

They bowed and the first man said, "I am Izumi."

"And I am Nagasaki." the other man said, "We were hired by Master Malik to defeat you."

"What the hell is Malik and Marik's problem?!" Yami said, aghast, "They really don't want to lose those millennium puzzles!"

"This is stupid. They're just two skinny guys." Joey laughed, "We can take them."

Joey strutted up to them and Yugi tried to stop him, "Wait a minute, Joey! I don't think that they're as harmless as you think!"

But it was too late. Joey walked up to Nagasaki and smirked, "Listen, you. If you and your friend don't move, I'm gonna have to get physical."

Nagasaki didn't say anything, he just put his hand in his back pocket and whipped out five miniature spike discs. He threw them all at Joey and pinned him to the wall on the other side of the room.

"Wha…!?" Joey struggled to break free but the discs were holding his jacket and pant legs tight to the bricks.

"Oh great!" Otogi slapped his forehead, "Why didn't I think of this before?! They're both ninjas."

"Ninjas?!" Yami and Yugi raised their eyebrows.

Izumi and Nagasaki began to black flip all around Yam, Yugi, and Otogi until it seemed that fifty ninjas were surrounding them instead of just two. All three of them were back to back in a small circle and it was apparent that the ninjas were planning to attack all three at the same time.

"What the hell are we supposed to do against two ninjas?!" Yami asked.

"Yeah," Yugi added, "They probably know karate and stuff."

"…" Otogi thought for a minute, "I got it! I think I can get us out of this mess!"

"Really, how?!" they asked.

"Listen, you guys go get Joey off the wall. I'm gonna handle these guys."

"What? How?"

The circle of ninjas began to get smaller and faster.

"Don't ask questions! Just do it!"

Yugi whined, "B-But Otogi, you don't-"

"Ugh! Just trust me, okay?! Before Marik and Malik took over, I went to the movies and saw Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I'm totally prepared for the ninja fight of my life!"

Yami and Yugi's eyes practically rolled back in their heads. "What in heaven or hell's name is wrong with you, Otogi?!" Yami shouted, "A movie will not prepare you for a fight!"

The circle of flip-flopping ninjas stopped and Izumi jumped blindly at Otogi. He dodged it, but not by much. Izumi touched the ground to get his balance and got back up.

"See?" Otogi waved at his friends, "Hurry up and get Joey down! I'm fine!"

"Yeah!" Joey was still squirming, "Hurry up and get me down!"

While Otogi busied himself with Izumi and Nagasaki, Yami and Yugi ran over the wall and pulled at the razor sharp discs. "Be careful pulling on those, Yugi." Yami warned while sucking his thumb, "I already cut my hand…"

"We've got to hurry it up," Yugi pulled another one out of Joey's jacket, "I don't know how long Otogi can last against those two."

Finally, Joey was freed. Yugi smiled and called out, "Otogi! Let's make a run for it! Joey's down from the wall!"

Otogi grunted as he dodged Nagasaki's kicks, "I can't! If we ran, they'd just follow us! You guys go!"

"Huh?!" they tilted they're heads, "What do you mean?!"

"Go, I'm busy! You're throwing off my chi!"

Despite Yami and Yugi's objections, Joey quickly dragged them by the sleeves down the hallway and deeper into the castle corridors.

It was about ten minutes, until anyone said anything. They felt pretty bad about leaving Otogi in a room with two skilled ninjas. They didn't want to say it out loud but Yami, Yugi, and Joey kind of thought that there was no way Otogi would escape with all of his limbs.

"…Aw, what are we sad about?!" Joey said, trying to be cheery, "Otogi wanted to stay, right? I'm sure he'll be fine!" 

"Stop it, Joey. You know as well as I do that Otogi didn't really want to sacrifice himself. Didn't you see that look on his face?"

Yami nodded, "That was the kind of look that said Oh god, why am I letting myself die for these fools?! I want to live!"

"Well, excuse me. I was just trying to lift your spirits. I mean, look at the two of you. You look like someone just stepped on your toe."

"Can you blame us? Two of our best friends were just taken by Marik's goons. It wouldn't hurt you to mourn a little, Joey."

Yami thought for a second, "…You know, I was thinking of something. When Fuyumi, Izumi, and Nagasaki introduced themselves to us… did you notice that they said Malik hired them do kill us? Not Marik."

"Hey, yeah…" Yugi nodded, "Maybe Malik's starting to become more aggressive when it comes to stopping us."

"Or maybe, Marik's dead and Malik has to take over." Joey added.

"Eh… we can always dream, can't we?"

There was about two minutes of silence while they crossed into another part of the castle. This new hallway was stony and gray. Not like the rest of the castle which was silver and gold.

"Um," Joey bit his lip, "Do you guys know where we are? I'm not an expert or anything, but it looks like we took a wrong turn."

"You know, Joey… this place didn't give me a map when we entered the gate. So I don't know either. We just have to trust that we're going the right way." Yami looked up, "But now that I think of it… this doesn't look too good to me either."

"Let's just keep going for a while and see where this takes us." Yugi said.

They kept walking, but it wasn't even two minutes later when they heard a strange creaking noise. At first, they ignored it, but then it happened again and, this time louder.

"Wait a minute." Yugi put his hand to his ear, "Hear that? There's something…"

"L-Let's just keep going. I'm sure it's nothing." Joey walked faster, "After all, nothing could be worse than those guys who pinned me to the wall."

It happened again and this time, a loud thud came with it. Yami stopped walking, "Hold on." he said to Yugi and Joey, "Whatever it is, it's right ahead of us. I can feel it."

"What do you mean you can feel it-" Joey's comment was stopped by the shaking of the ground. "What is it?!"

They looked up in dismay to see a giant boulder rolling towards them from up ahead. It was so big, it took up almost the entire entrance way.

"Oh, crap, run!" They sprinted backwards from where they came. The boulder gained speed and chased after them almost as fast as they ran.

"W-What are we gonna do?!" Yugi cried, "There's no way we can outrun that thing!"

Yami shook his head, "We don't want to outrun it, Yugi! We've come too far to just give up and run!"

"Then what do we do?! We cannot fight a big rock!"

"I-I got an idea!" Joey panted. "Stop running!"

"What!?" They called in disbelief, "We can't!"

"Just do it!" Joey stopped and quickly went over to the wall of the hallway and picked up a large pole that just happened to be sitting by the wayside. 

He stuck it out in front of him and the boulder crashed into the pole and Joey. He slid back a few feet but finally stopped.

"Joey!" Yugi and Yami ran behind him, "What are you doing? Let go of that, you'll hurt yourself!"

"N-No…! Go ahead. See that little hole down there?" Joey was obviously struggling just to keep the rock from crushing him but he nodded over to the corner and sure enough there was a hole between the wall and the boulder. Big enough for Yugi and Yami to climb through.

"But Joey, we can't leave you here! You can't hold that boulder forever!"

"I don't n-need forever. I just need you guys to get to the other side. Then I'll let go and make a run for it. Now, hurry it up…!"

Yugi protested, "But-"

"Listen, Yugi! If you don't go, Marik's going to have his way with the whole world! You need to get those puzzles back! Tristan is fighting a sumo wrestler, Otogi is karate chopping ninjas… I think I can handle a rock!"

Yami nodded, "Come on, Yugi." he pulled his hikari by the arm and crawled through the hole, giving Joey a salute as he went through.

When they were on the other side, Joey let go of the boulder and began to run for his life, "Give 'em hell, guys!" he called back.

They carried on by themselves and made it out of the dark and cave-like corridor. They were back in the main castle and were heading up a large flight of stairs.

After a long while of nothing but stairs, Yami and Yugi finally saw the top of a large door and knew instantly that was the room Marik was in. They came closer to the doorway but instead of seeing just a door… they saw Ryou and Bakura guarding it. 


	17. Let us go!

A Tale of Two Kings

Chapter 17:

"B-Bakura? Ryou?" Yugi stuttered these words as he and his yami came up the stairs and stood about five feet away from Ryou and Bakura. "What are you doing here?"

As Bakura was about to open his mouth and speak, Ryou ran up to Yami and Yugi and yelled at them, "Hurry, get out of here!"

"Wha…?" They starred at him, "What's wrong, Ryou?"

"WellMarikandMalikweresayingthat-" he was talking so fast that no one could understand a thing that came out of his mouth.

"Calm down." Yami held his hands up and shushed Ryou, "Tell us what you're trying to say… slowly. And no slurring words."

He took a deep breath, "Okay. Marik and Malik told me and Bakura that if you got this far… we would s-send you to the shadow realm."

Yami and Yugi looked at each other, aghast.

"Oh, but don't worry!" Ryou smiled nervously, "Let's not and say we did. I mean, Malik and Marik don't have to know. Right, Bakura?"

Bakura shook his head and took his millennium ring from inside his shirt, "Sorry, but I promised Malik that this would be taken care of. Besides, you wont feel a thing (except for your immortal soul being ripped from your body). C'mon, Ryou, let's get this over with."

"B-Bakura!" Ryou yelled, "You can't be serious! These are our friends you're talking about!"

"Correction. They're you're friends. Marik and Malik are my friends."

"I can't believe you would be so callous, Bakura, what's wrong with you!"

As Ryou and Bakura continued to verbally battle each other, Yami and Yugi were hitting themselves in the foreheads for being so stupid.

"I cannot believe it!" Yami whispered to his hikari, "How could we not realize that Marik and Malik would do something like this!"

"Well, what are we gonna do?" Yugi whispered back, "We don't have any millennium items with us so we're at their mercy."

"…Maybe Ryou can talk Bakura out of this."

"I dunno, Yami. He looks like he's out for blood."

"I can't believe our awful luck."

"No!" Yami and Yugi turned their attention back to Ryou and Bakura who were fighting physically now. Ryou was trying to take Bakura's ring away from him and Bakura was doing the same thing to Ryou.

Yugi tilted his head and was thinking, 'Can't they go two minutes without fighting? They're just like Marik and Malik. Wait a minute… this could be what we need!' He leaned towards Yami, " Hey, I got an idea."

"What is it?" he was still watching Ryou and Bakura.

"We just sneak by them." Yugi nodded at the door behind the fighting yami and hikari, "Quietly. So they don't notice us."

"Worth a try."

They began to tiptoe past Bakura and Ryou who were wrestling on the floor. 'Almost there…' Yugi thought.

As Yami put his hand on the doorknob, Bakura looked up, "Hold it right there, you two."

"So close!" Yami sighed.

He stood up and pointed at both of them, "You two are such chickens! What do you even expect to do if you ever got to Marik, huh! You don't have anything to fight with!"

"Why do you have to doubt so many things, Bakura?" Ryou asked, "How do you know that they don't already have a plan to defeat Marik?"

Yami scratched his head, "Actually, we were gonna just wing it and see what happens."

"Yami!" Yugi glared at him.

"What? It's true."

Bakura rolled his eyes and then looked back at Ryou, "See? There no more prepared to face Marik than you are to start a rock band. As far as I'm concerned, they belong in the shadow realm." he got his millennium ring off the floor and starred at Yugi, "Let's get this over with."

- 

Meanwhile, Marik and Malik were in the next room trying desperately to hear what they were saying in the hallway. Marik forced Malik to put his ear to the door but it was three feet thick, so it was hard to hear through.

"Well! What's Bakura saying?" Marik asked, sitting over by the window.

"I… I can barely hear, but…" he listened a little longer, "I think… Bakura was eating chicken…Yami grew wings… and Ryou's starting a rock band."

"Huh?"

"Something like that."

"Oh, this is hopeless!" Marik threw his arms into the air, "We're not ever going to know what's going on out there!"

"Well, I'm doing the best I can!"

"Why is it that your best never seems to be enough?"

Malik stuck his tongue out, "Whose the negative one, now?"

"… You know, they shouldn't even be talking out there. Our orders were to send them to the shadow realm on sight."

"It's Ryou… he's stopping Bakura from doing his job."

Marik growled with aggravation, "After this is all said and done, I'm sending Ryou to live in a colony on the moon."

"… I don't know how Bakura would respond to that."

"Whatever. All I know is that they better take care of Yami and Yugi fast because I gotta pee."

-

"Gee-wiz, Bakura." Yugi groaned, "Why don't you just let us go? I mean, you don't actually like Marik and Malik ruling the world, do you?"

"I don't care. It doesn't affect me." He glared at his hikari, "And Ryou shouldn't care either. It doesn't affect him, he's living a better life than when Marik and Malik weren't ruling."

"I liked my old life! It was comfortable."

"Yeah, whatever. Can we just do this already!"

Ryou stepped in front of Yami and Yugi. "Bakura, if you really want to send them to the shadow realm, you're going to have to go through me first!"

"What! Ryou, get out of the way!"

"Ooh!" Yugi squealed with delight, "Yami, we might be able to get to Marik after all. If this works."

"Well, we've got a fifty-fifty chance. I mean, Ryou has the same power that Bakura has. Let's just hope Ryou doesn't cave before Bakura does."

"Listen Bakura," Ryou said, "I'm not going to let you get rid of Yami and Yugi and condemn the entire planet to a life of unparalleled misery!"

"Are we back to the misery thing again? Ryou, this is getting ridiculous." He walked towards them and grabbed Ryou by the ends of his pink hair and tugged him away from in front of Yami and Yugi.

"Ouch! Bakura!" Ryou whined, "I just shampooed this morning! You're going to ruin the herbal freshness!"

"Bad things happen to those who betray their yami. This is a lesson well learned."

Ryou twisted away from Bakura's grip and ran into the corner of the room. He sat there, massaging his spilt ends and mumbling to himself.

Yami groaned, "This, uh, isn't going too well for us, Yugi. Ryou was our only defense and Bakura has overcome him by pulling his hair. He didn't hold out for too long, did he?"

"I… guess we'll have to get out of this mess by ourselves."

Bakura turned around, "Okay, guys…" his millennium ring began to glow, "Say hi to the shadow realm for me."

"B-Bakura! Wait!" Yugi called out, trying to stall. "You don't want to send us to the shadow realm!"

He rolled his eyes, "And why not?"

"…B-Because…" he looked at Yami for an idea but he just shrugged, "Um, well… if you don't then… uh…"

Bakura was growing impatient, "C'mon ! I'm tired of waiting! I-"

Yami waved his arms around with an idea, "No! If you let us go, we'll give you a cat! A big, fat cat, so you can eat it! I know how much you like domestic house pets, Bakura." "Eww!" Yugi looked at Yami, "That's horrible! Bakura doesn't eat cats… does he?"

Yami and Yugi looked at Bakura and his mouth began to water. "Mmm…"

"Oh, that is gross." Ryou called out from the corner, "So that's where my mom's calico, Fluffy, went. You ate him, didn't you!"

Bakura whipped his head around, "I was hungry and Fluffy ate all the tuna!"

"So what do ya say, Bakura?" Yami asked, "Our lives for a tasty cat. Sound good?"

"… Hmm. I-I don't know-"

"Two cats, then!" Yami yelled, "Two big, fat, calico cats!"

"And an iguana!" Yugi added.

Yami looked at him, "An iguana?"

Yugi shrugged, "Hey, you never know…"

"Alright, alright!" Bakura's mouth was over flowing with drool, "I wont send you to the shadow realm. But, Yami, if I don't get those cats, consider yourself dead!"

He jumped up, "Yes! Okay, Bakura, you'll get your cats!"

"Oh, and…" he licked his lips, "Give me the iguana too…"

There was a moment of silence.

Ryou smiled and shouted, "Okay, you guys, go in there and kick some evil dictator butt!"

"But whatever you do, don't tell Marik that I let you get by. Just say that I passed out or something. If Marik finds out, he'll never let me watch T.V at his house again."

"We had T.V at our house, Bakura." Ryou said.

"Yeah, but…" He scratched his head, "Marik had all the extra channels…"

Again, there was a moment of silence.

Yugi started walking for the door, "They're in here, right? Well, come on, Yami, let's get a move on."

"Right!" He went over to join his hikari and they lifted the hatch and opened the door. 


	18. Battle for the puzzles Part 1

A Tale of Two Kings

Chapter 18:

Marik and Malik were sitting in the room on the top of the stairs. They had stopped trying to eavesdrop on the conversation outside of the door about ten minutes ago. They pretty much lost interest in it and sat down in the middle of the floor playing different card games.

"Got any threes?" Malik asked.

Marik looked at his hand, "Go fish."

Just then, they heard the door hinges creak. Marik looked up, "Hey, it must be Bakura and Ryou. They're probably all done."

As the door opened wider, it revealed not one but two spiky-headed boys standing in the doorway. At first, they were masked by shadows, but when they walked into the room, it was apparent to Marik and Malik who they were. Both Yami and Yugi were standing right there with glares on their faces.

Marik had to do a double-take and Malik did too. "W-What are you doing in here! Where the hell are Ryou and Bakura!" Marik asked.

"Um… they… died." Yugi said. Actually, both Ryou and Bakura ran out of the castle and headed for the hills. They knew if Marik found out about their betrayal, there'd be hell to pay.

Yami elbowed his hikari, "They didn't die. Exactly. They, uh, slipped into a coma. And they're in the hospital now."

Although Marik didn't buy that for one second, Malik looked out into the hallway with sympathetic eyes, "Aw. Maybe we should send flowers, Marik."

"What!"

"I mean, they were our friends. Even you must feel sorry for them. A coma is nothing to sneeze at."

"They are lying, you nincompoop!" Marik pointed towards Yami and Yugi, "Somehow, they got Ryou and Bakura to let them pass!"

"Oh…"

"It doesn't matter what they did." Yami took a step forward, "What does matter is what we're here to do. Marik, we're here to get the millennium puzzles back and stop you!"

Yugi nodded, "The world has had enough of your torture!"

Marik raised his hands in mock-surrender, "Oh, I'm sooooo scared! These little kids are going to beat us up and take away the millennium puzzles! Oh, what shall we do!"

"C'mon, guys, be serious." Malik laughed, "We have both the millennium puzzles and rods. You don't have any millennium items and you're really not a threat to us."

"Oh, yeah?" Yugi asked, "If we're not a threat, then why did you both try so hard to get rid of us?"

"We know you set up all those obstacles on the first floors of the castle. The wrestler, the ninjas, and that huge rock! Even turning our friends against us!"

"The island and everyone on it was another plan to get rid of us, but we survived it, didn't we! So, Marik, Malik… if you really don't think of us as a danger, then why all the defenses?"

Marik looked at his fingernails, "It was just something to pass the time, you morons. If we wanted to get rid of you right away, we would have done it already."

"If that's the case, Marik, then you know now that you can't play with us any longer!" Yugi bit his lip, "We're right here and there's nothing you can do about it!"

"Oh, really? Well, then…" Marik walked casually over towards Yugi. He started to back up, but Marik's hand shot out at the last minute and grabbed Yugi by the collar of his shirt.

"Hey!" Yugi struggled, "Let go of me!"

"Marik, what are you doing!" Yami was about to get Yugi back down but before he could try, Malik took Yami's hands and held them behind his back, "Stop it, Malik! Let me go!"

"No can do, Yami." Malik smiled.

Yami looked up to see Marik walking up to the large window in the middle of the wall. He kicked it open with his left foot and thrust Yugi out into the night.

"Hey! Hey, hey, hey, hey!" Yugi kicked and yelled, trying to get back into the castle, "Help me, Yami! Make him stop!"

Malik tilted his head, "Wow. Marik's going to throw Yugi out the window. Talk about a big mess."

Yami's eyes were popping out of his head, "What the hell's wrong with you, Marik! Put him down, now!"

"Put him down? Okay." Marik lowered Yugi while his hand was still outside the window. Yugi screamed some more and Marik smirked, "Do you really want me to put him down?"

"Marik," Yami yelled, "If you drop him anywhere but on this floor, I swear I'll-"

"Make a threat to me again, Yami, and see what happens to your hikari!" All the while that Marik was yelling back at Yami, he was shaking his arm and Yugi as well.

"All right, stop!" Yugi called from outside the window, "C-Can we all just calm down for a minute, please?"

They all looked at him, half-irritated for interrupting their argument.

He sighed, "Okay. Marik, will you put me down! I mean, inside the room. Don't you think about consequences of your actions?"

"Why should I?"

"Don't you think if you let me fall to my doom, there'll be some kind of repercussion!"

"I've got to agree with Yugi, Marik." Malik said, still holding onto Yami, "Dropping him all the way down there would cause a pretty big commotion. Plus, the janitors would have to clean it up and you know how they can get when they're forced to clean up human remains. They never clean anything well, and we'd have Yugi's blood in our nice rosebushes. Which brings me to the gardeners-"

"Enough, Malik!" Marik groaned, "Janitors and gardeners… who the hell cares!"

"Why are you always so mean! I'm just trying to keep this stupid castle clean!"

"Oh, for Ra's sake…!"

Just like that, Marik and Malik had entered their own little world of peculiar bantering. Yami took this opportunity to try and break free, since Malik was involved with Marik at the moment, he wasn't concentrating on Yami at all.

Yami quickly slid his arms away from Malik's grasp and elbowed him in the stomach. Malik's eyeballs rolled around in his head a little bit before he sank down to his knees. "Argh…" he moaned, "T-That didn't feel too good…"

"Malik!" Marik yelled, "How could you be so careless!"

"Oh… s-shut up…"

"Be careful, Yami!" Yugi squeaked. He saw that Yami was rushing towards himself and Marik. He tried to get Marik's hand off his shirt at the last minute before Yami ran into Marik and tossed them both out the window.

Yami rammed right into Marik's side before Yugi could brake free on his own and Marik loosened his grip on Yugi. He was about to go tumbling down the side of the wall but Yami caught him by his ears and pulled him back into the room.

Marik was tipping back and forth on the windowsill but caught his balance before he fell over the side. "Whew…" He stood there looking down for a minute and thought, 'Man, I hate to think of what might have happened if I had fallen…'

Just then, Marik heard Malik yell, "Watch out!"

Marik turned around in time to see Yami and Yugi sprinting towards him with their arms outstretched.

"Ah, hey!" Marik screamed as they both tackled him to the ground. Once on the floor, Yami tried his best to hold Marik's hands at his sides while Yugi pulled the millennium puzzle over his head.

"Malik!" Marik managed to say from underneath Yami and Yugi, "Get over here and pull them off of me!"

By this time, Malik was no longer suffering from Yami's blow to the stomach. He nodded, "Okay!" And scrambled over to pull Yami off.

He was able to tickle Yami and made him fall off of Marik. But by the time Yami was off, Yugi had already gotten the millennium puzzle from around Marik's neck. "Hooray! Yami, I got it!"

"G-Good Job, Yu-Yugi…!" Yami said while being strangled by Malik.

"Uh-oh…" Malik dropped Yami to the floor and looked at Yugi holding the millennium puzzle in his hand. "That isn't too good."

Yami got his wind back and stood up, "C'mon, Yugi, this is our chance!"

Yugi put the millennium puzzle that he just got from Marik around his neck and rushed over to his yami's side. Yami was already trying to get the second millennium puzzle from Malik. They were pulling on it and almost broke the chain that was attached to it. Once Yugi had come over to help Yami, Malik couldn't hold onto it any longer and it was taken away from him.

"Woo-hoo!" they whooped in victory.

"Marik!" Malik whirled around to face his yami, "Why are you just sitting over there like a bump on a pickle!"

Marik fluffed his hair and looked at Malik, "What are you talking about?" he said with a smirk.

"…?" Malik was on the edge of a nervous breakdown. He turned to Yami and Yugi and they were jumping up and down in celebration, "Marik!" He yelled.

"Hmm? Okay, okay. Don't have a conniption." he sighed and snapped his fingers.

There was a low sound at first then silence. Even Yami and Yugi looked around half expectantly. In less than a second, the door to the room burst open and about ten large and strong looking men entered the room.

They rushed over to Yami and Yugi and grabbed them by the shoulders. Marik smiled and sauntered over to the two spiky haired boys who were now being held about two feet off the ground. He took the millennium puzzle from around Yugi's neck and put it back around his.

"See, Malik?" Marik said while handing the other puzzle to his hikari, "I've got everything under control. You worry too much."

"… Marik, you almost gave me a heart-attack! I thought you were really going to let them just walk out of here with the millennium puzzles."

"You just haven't been able to understand my subtle sense of humor, yet."

"Yeah, and I hope I never do."

"You'll never get away with this Marik!" Yugi yelled, still in the hands of his captors, "This will not stop us! We may not get you today, or even tomorrow… but your evilness won't go on forever!"

"Ha. That's funny. You're acting like I'm going to give you another chance to stop me."

"…Huh?"

Marik smiled, "You heard me. Playing with you guys was fun and everything… But it's time you go. Permanently."

Malik looked at him, "What does that mean, Marik?"

Marik nodded towards the window and the two guards with Yami and Yugi in their arms trotted over to the open window. They held both Yugi and Yami over the edge and looked back to Marik, awaiting orders.

"Wow, Marik, you mean you're really going to go through with it?" Malik asked, in awe.

"I can't take anymore chances, Malik. Last time was too close."

Yugi screamed and twisted around, "Let us go, Marik! You cannot do this! You can't!" he looked at Yami, "Do something!"

"What do you want me to do? I'm being held just as tightly as you are."

"Face it, Yugi." Marik said from behind them, "This is the end of the line."

While Yugi kicked and hollered, Yami sighed and looked down at the five hundred foot drop, "I swear, if we didn't have bad luck, we'd have no luck at all." 


	19. Battle for the puzzles Part 2

A Tale of Two Kings

Chapter 19:

It was somewhere around one in the morning at Marik's castle. The night was silent and the tension inside was unbearable. Up in the highest room of the shining castle, Yami and Yugi were being held over the edge of the window by orders of Marik.

The two men holding them were just awaiting orders to drop them down the side of the large building. Yugi was still struggling and thrashing around in the man's arms. Yami had started to protest physically, but whenever he started the man's grip on him began to get tighter to the point when he thought he'd bust an artery.

"Ah!" Marik breathed in deep, "The sweet smell of doom is in the air!"

"Let's get this over with, Marik. I'm tired and we've got stuff to do tomorrow." Malik yawned with boredom.

"You're right. Enough enjoying the atmosphere. Okay, you guys," he addressed the men holding Yami and Yugi, "Go ahead and let them dro-" 

"Please! Please, Marik, I'm begging you! Don't do this!" Yugi turned his head to face Marik and Malik, "C'mon! This is terribly vicious, I can't believe you'll actually go through with sending us to our death!"

"Why not?" Malik asked, "We've tried to kill you countless times before. Why should tonight be any different?"

Yami looked at his hikari, "…You know, he has a point, Yugi. Why should tonight be any different?"

"I… I don't know." He conceded. "But it isn't right!"

Marik glared at the young boy, "Do I look like someone whose concerned with what's right and what's wrong!"

"No… but, still-"

"Drop them both, now!" Marik yelled.

The two men nodded and released the boys. At first they didn't realize what happened and looked around when they didn't feel the strong hands binding them anymore. Immediately Yami and Yugi plunged downward into the dark abyss.

Marik cheered happily after hearing their terrified screams until they couldn't be heard any longer, "Ah, the satisfaction of it all! This is truly the happiest day of my life!"

"Wow…" Malik looked out the window and saw no more Yugi or Yami, "W-We actually sent them tumbling to their doom. This is unheard of."

"Stop acting so surprised, Malik. You're behaving like you never thought we'd get rid of them."

"Heh… Actually-"

"Don't say it." Marik held his hand to Malik's face, "Let's celebrate instead. If I've calculated correctly, we'll live about 63 more years. That's 63 years without Yami or Yugi to slow us down."

Malik nodded, "Right. As long as we keep away from transsexual aliens and zombie cows, we'll live a long and healthy life! Tequilas all around!"

Marik and Malik's guards cheered at the sudden chance to celebrate and chug alcohol.

-

"This is it, Yami! This is the end of it all!" Yugi yelled as he and his yami continued to fall downward into the nothingness below them.

They clenched onto each other's clothing as they sailed down faster and faster. Yami, at first, was calm about their situation. But of course, this was before they had been dropped from the safety of the guards' arms.

As soon as they were released, Yami turned into twice the chicken of Yugi. Crying, scratching and carrying on. Tears flew around Yami now as he fell with Yugi, "I don't want to die yet! This isn't the way it's supposed to end!"

Yugi looked down and it wasn't too soon till they landed not so gracefully into the thorny rosebushes below. Then he looked behind him at the castle wall that wasn't so faraway.

"Listen to me, Yami! Maybe it doesn't have to end like this!"

"What are you talking about!"

"I've got an idea! Grab my hand!" He held out his hand to Yami and he took it. With his yami's hand in his, Yugi grabbed hold of a yellow brick that jetted out of the wall. He caught it and they hung there. On the wall.

Yami looked around, "… D-Did we make it?"

Yugi nodded happily, "Yeah! We did. We are alive, Yami, and we survived the fall without a scratch."

"Hot damn!" Yami looked down, still grasping Yugi's small hand. "Hey, wait a minute. We… we're still about two hundred feet in the air!"

"… And?"

"And! Yugi, we're stuck here! We couldn't even try to climb down to the ground because there are no more bricks like the one you're holding onto! The rest of them are in place."

"Oops…" he smiled apologetically, "Sorry about that. Guess I didn't think this through. I was just so frazzled, I had to do something to keep us from falling."

"Eh, that's okay. I guess we'll have to figure a way out of this mess. I'm sure that sooner or later, I'll think of something."

"Yami. Sooner would be better than later. M-My hand is slipping."

"Huh!" Yami looked up at him, "You've got to be kidding me!"

"No, Yami, I'm not! It hurts! My hand is raw and I don't know how much longer I can stay on this brick!" his voice was getting higher and higher as he shrieked into the night, "Think of something, please!"

"Uh! Give me a sec!" Yami looked around, 'Think, think! What can I-'

"We don't have a second Yami! I think I'll have to let go!"

Just then, a sound reached Yami and Yugi's ears. It was quiet at first, as if it were far away or something. But then it grew closer and louder.

"Do you hear that sound?" Yugi asked, "What is it…?"

As if to answer Yugi's question, the cause of the peculiar sound slowly appeared in front of the two boys. It came from below them, at an angle. It was a helicopter with the letters KC on the side. The same exact helicopter that Yami and Yugi had used to get to Marik's castle.

The side of the aircraft pulled up right next to them and the door slid open, "Hey, you guys!" Joey, Otogi and Tristan's heads popped out into the night, "What're ya doing!"

"Oh, you know… just hanging out." Yugi smiled, "Can you get us off here!"

Tristan nodded, "Jump! We'll catch you!"

Yami swung from Yugi's hand and landed right inside the helicopter. He turned around and noticed that Yugi was still holding onto that brick. "Yugi! Let's go!"

He shook his head, "I'm scared…"

"What!" Yami groaned, "C'mon, I'll catch you if you don't make it, just jump!"

"No!"

"Listen, Yugi, don't make me come over there!" Kaiba's face suddenly appeared in the window, "Yugi Motou, if you don't get in this helicopter right now, Marik will be the least of your worries!"

This new threat got Yugi jumping as if his life depended on it. And in many ways it did. He threw himself off the wall and aimed his body for the helicopter. He missed, of course… and banged his head on the side. Before his limp body slipped off the craft, he was pulled in to safety by his friends.

"Ow…" Yugi held his head, "That kind of hurt."

Yami held back a giggle at his silly hikari. He looked around and saw that every one of his friends were sitting in a circle around them. Tristan, Otogi, Joey, Bakura, and Ryou and even Mai and Serenity. Kaiba and Mokuba were at the controls and were flying the helicopter.

"How did you all get here?" Yami directed his question mostly at Joey, Otogi and Tristan, "I thought you all were still in the castle."

"I told you, I was okay!" Tristan said, "That fat man couldn't hold a candle to me!"

"And I was kicking ninja butt so hard that Izumi and Nagasaki ran home to their momma!" Otogi smirked.

Joey smiled shyly, "Actually, I just ran into these two after the boulder got stuck in a hallway. Then we met up with Ryou and Bakura outside, then Kaiba showed up. That was pretty unexpected. We decided to check up on you two to see what was going on. It was a good thing Kaiba came or you probably would have still been hanging there."

"Aw, Kaiba!" Yugi squealed giddily, "You do care about us!"

"Oh, no, I don't." he shifted in his seat, "Mai and Serenity were bugging me to go help you out. When Mokuba started whining, I just couldn't take it anymore. I was getting ready to go home and watch American Idol."

"Hey, can we stop for ice cream?" Serenity asked, "I'm craving chocolate!"

"Stop for ice cream?" Kaiba looked back at her, "What am I, the Pony Express? We aren't stopping anywhere. I'm going home."

"Home! Wait, Kaiba, don't! We have to go back to that castle! We have to get the millennium puzzles back, we've got to give it another shot!" Yugi cried, "Turn around!"

Yami agreed, "Kaiba, come on! Turn the helicopter around!"

"What…?" Kaiba moaned, "I don't wanna." He turned back at them to say more but when he did, he saw that they all had puppy-dog faces on and were ready to beg him.

"Please!" They all whined at the same time.

"Ugh… I don't know why I'm so nice all the time." He shifted the controls, "It makes me sick to my stomach."

-

Back at the castle, Marik and Malik were totally high. So were all the guards. All together, they drank more than fifty bottles of Tequila and twenty bottles of Vodka. Most of the guards were on the floor throwing up or had the decency to get up and run to the bathroom.

"M-Marik…" Malik looked over at his yami who was drifting in and out of consciousness. "M-Marik… wake up…" he hiccupped and shook Marik till he woke up.

"What…" his eyes rolled around, "Do you want…?"

"…think we drank too much… (hiccup!) I think we're d-d-drunk… and we… we…" he didn't finish his sentence.

"Sh…. Shh (hiccup!) be silent. I'm t-tring to sl…sleep."

Malik shrugged and looked next to him on the other side of Marik. There was another bottle of Vodka that was half full, just sitting there. Malik couldn't think too clearly. All he knew was that he wanted a little bit more.

He reached over Marik's lap, towards the bottle. But he was so wasted that he tipped over on his side and was too lazy to sit up straight. "D-Damn… I'm soooo (hiccup!)… soooo thirsty… (hiccup!)"

They were both unconscious at this time and snored heavily, surrounded by the vomiting guards.

Little did Marik and Malik know, (because they were intoxicated beyond belief) the Kaiba Corp helicopter was right outside the window. While it was hovering by the closed windowpane, Yami and Yugi were planning how to get in there from the outside.

"We could just throw a rock in to smash the window." Yami said, starring out the window of the copter.

Yugi shook his head, "We don't have a rock, and we can't kick it open-"

"I'll volunteer." Joey raised his hand. They all looked at him in question.

"What do you mean, Joey? Volunteer for what?"

"I want to help out any way I can. So, I'll throw myself into the window. That way you two can go in and do your thing."

"…" Yugi shook his head wondering how in the world Joey could come up with such stupid ideas, "Joey, that's nuts. You can't throw yourself into a window made of glass. That isn't safe at all."

"Yugi's right, Joey," Kaiba said, "You can't throw yourself into a window."

Everyone looked at him with a bit of surprise on their faces. They never expected Kaiba, of all people, to stop Joey from doing something dangerous.

"I'll throw you instead." He continued.

They all groaned in aggravation. "Okay, okay." Yami stood up and slid the door of the aircraft open, "We have to hurry up. Joey, we have no choice. Kaiba, hurry up and throw Joey into the window."

"Yami!" Yugi complained. But it was too late for last minute whining. Kaiba already had Joey by the legs. Swinging him round and round, Kaiba shouted "Blast off!" as he let go and Joey's body sailed into the thick window and broke through.

The glass shattered into a thousand pieces and landed on the floor as Joey did at almost the exact same time. He rolled onto his side and screamed, "Oh god!"

Well, the window was gone and Yami and Yugi followed into the castle once again. They landed gracefully on their feet, (opposite of Joey, who was still writhing in pain on the glass-covered floor) and looked around at the strange sight.

Vomit of all colors was on the floor in little piles and sleeping men were surrounding them. Bottles of whisky were broken in half on tables and chairs and in the middle of all the mess lay Marik and Malik who were half awake and half asleep.

"Jeez." Yugi whistled in astonishment, "What did they do in here…?"

"Eh, it isn't important. We just need two things." Yami walked over to Marik and Malik sat, being extra careful not to wake the sleeping guards.

Yugi followed him and in less than a moment, they were standing right in front of the two who caused all this. 

Marik's eyes opened a little and, to be honest, he didn't really recognize either of the boys, "… Who (hiccup!) are you?"

"Y-You don't know who we are?" Yugi tilted his head to the side. "Wow, you must have really had a lot to drink."

"Hmm?" Marik couldn't hear Yugi really well, "(hiccup!) What are y-you talking about…?"

"They're both totally high." Yugi raised his eyebrow, "So that's what they do when we're not around."

Malik was now awake because of all the noise, "…" he looked up at Yugi and Yami, "Oh no! (hiccup!) I-It's a tr-tr-transsexual alien! (hiccup!)"

"What are you talking about?" Yami asked. "Never mind. I don't want to know." he bent down and took the millennium puzzles from around Marik's neck.

Yugi then tried to get the other puzzle that was around Malik's neck. But that proved to be a harder task. "Let go of me!" Yugi yelled when Malik had attached himself to Yugi's stomach and was squeezing.

"Y-you can't have my (hiccup!) beanie baby collection!" he squeezed harder, "N-No!"

"Malik, I'm not a transsexual alien and I don't want your collection, stop it! Get off!" Yugi struggled, now under the full weight of Malik who had crawled on top of his back.

Yami had taken Marik's puzzle easily. Marik didn't even put up a fight, he just fell over and mumbled something about muffins and a moose. He now looked at his hikari in amusement. Yugi had just fallen onto the floor with Malik sleeping and drooling on him.

"Help, Yami!" Yugi voice was muffled and the only thing you could see was his little arm reaching out for assistance. "Please!"

Yami walked over and shoved Malik off of Yugi. He scrambled to his feet and gasped for air. "Golly-gee-wiz! H-He almost suffocated me!" He bent down carefully and snatched the puzzle from around Malik's neck.

Joey came over and stood behind them, "Hey come on, guys. Kaiba's out there honking the horn, so we gotta get gone. Did you get your millennium puzzles back?"

"Yeah." Yami nodded, "You okay, Joey? Kaiba threw you pretty hard."

"Aw, yeah, I'm A-Okay. Aside from the pieces of glass lodged in my spinal cord, I'm no worse than I was before." he said cheerfully.

"Let's go, then." Yugi shook the attached Malik off of his foot, "We've got what we need to set the world right again." 


	20. Another very important job

A Tale of Two Kings

Chapter 20:

And set the world right, they did. Within the next week, Yami and Yugi worked over time with the help of their millennium puzzles to put everything back in it's place. Of course there was an ample amount of confusion among the public. They had to be brainwashed into thinking that the whole Marik ruling the world thing was just a dream. Once that was done, the rest of the damage control was pretty mild.

Kaiba's company was ridded of all traces of Marik and Malik. The public had no recollection of Kaiba being involved with anything, so his business didn't suffer or anything like that. Actually, it was Kaiba who was traumatized by the whole thing. He had to go to a therapist for the following few months to recapture his lost childhood and crap like that.

Yugi was able to go to Antarctica and rescue his Grandfather, along with the rest of the elderly. They were very thankful (the ones who hadn't frozen from the cold, anyway). They decided, on there way back from Antarctica, to pick up the cannibals on "Cannibal Island" as well. Yugi didn't really want to, but Yami thought it would be good to reintroduce them to the civilized world (there were only about twenty left).

Ryou had made Bakura apologize to Yami and Yugi for betraying them and almost sending them to the shadow realm. He didn't really want to say sorry but he did anyway. And he got his two cats that Yami had promised him. Yugi threw in the iguana, too.

"Woo-hoo!" Bakura yelled when the package was sent to their house. It was addressed to him from Yami and Yugi. He opened the cardboard box and peeked inside.

There were two cute little calico kittens and an iguana hiding underneath. They purred at him and Ryou protested, "Bakura, you aren't going to eat them, are you!"

"Of course, I am. A deal's a deal."

"But they're adorable!" He cooed, still looking at them.

"Yeah, adorably delicious." Bakura lifted one of the kittens out of the box and starred at it, hungrily. "Mmm…"

Ryou held out his hand, "Bakura, give them to me, now!"

"And let you eat them all by yourself? No way. I'll let you have the iguana, though, if you promise to leave the tail."

-

At Yugi and Yami's house, they continued life as before, when Marik and Malik were still trying to achieve world domination and hadn't succeeded. They were in Yugi's room, taping even thicker chains to their millennium puzzles.

"Do you think this is really necessary, Yami?" Yugi asked, "I mean, we're not even using scotch tape. This is duct tape, for crying out loud."

Yami wrapped more tape around the chain and puzzle, "Yes, I know. That's only because I couldn't find the crazy glue and Bakura borrowed my welding torch."

"But I doubt Marik and Malik will try the 'grab and run' tactic again. That'd be kinda dumb. I mean, they've already tried it once, and we'd expect them to try it again."

"That's right. They know that we know that they know that it's stupid. So, they're counting on the fact that we think that they think that they won't try it again. Then they'll do it, even though they think that we know that they wont try it again."

Yugi's brain was sizzling. "Uh…"

"I know, it's confusing. But that's the way they think. Trust me." Yami finished the roll of tape and held it up so Yugi could see, "There. Now it's safe."

"It doesn't even look like it could be a millennium puzzle. People will think that you're carrying a big ball of duct tape around your neck."

"That's the whole idea." Yami smiled triumphantly, "This way, no one will try to steal it. Only a crazy person would be after a ball of tape."

"Sorry to burst your bubble, Yami, but… Marik and Malik are crazy people." 

He sighed, "Why can't I ever win…?"

"That's okay," Yugi patted his yami on the back, "Marik and Malik have probably realized that ruling the world isn't all it's cracked up to be. They're probably at a therapists' office right now trying to fix their lives."

They both sat there on the bed, thinking about what had just come out of Yugi's mouth. In a minute they looked at each other. "I don't think so."

-

Marik and Malik had been back in their old house for about two weeks now. Their big, shiny castle had been destroyed a little after Yami and Yugi took the millennium puzzles back. So, they had to move back into their non-castle house. Marik was in pieces over the loss. He spent the first week sitting on the couch watching government funded television.

Malik had gotten over it rather quickly, as he is usually the one to pick up the pieces and move on. But Marik was a different story entirely. The night that the puzzles were taken, Marik and Malik were both drunk and they didn't really notice. But at around noon, they woke up from their intoxicated slumber to find that the puzzles were missing. Marik had a fit and Malik was upset about the smelly vomit on the floor.

To this day, Marik still complained to his hikari about how dumb they were. Presently, they were in the living room and going through the things that were still left over from their three months as king and co-king of the world.

"Let's see…" Malik said, "Well, our millennium rods are still intact. And look, we have some of the chains the prisoners wore."

"So what? What good are those, now! We don't have any prisoners, Malik!" Marik snapped, folding his arms and pouting.

"Here." He shoved Marik's rod into his lap and continued to look in the box. He shifted around and pulled out a bunch of papers. "What are these?"

Marik looked over at him, "Hmm? Oh, hey! That's the rough draft of the Marble that I was working on in my spare time!"

"I didn't know you were actually going to write that."

"Of course, I was! I told you we were doing it. You just think I'm joking all the time, don't you?" He grabbed the papers and sat them on the coffee table. "I'll finish this and we can get it published."

"What publisher would waste his time on that?"

Marik growled, "Watch it, Malik. This is pure gold."

"Whatever." Malik went back into the box, "…Oh hey, look!"

Marik turned his head and saw Malik holding up a DVD with the words Cannibal Island on it. Marik took it, "Aw, hey, I almost forgot I turned this into a DVD! We can watch it right now."

"Okay." Malik put it into the DVD player under the television set and pressed play. It wasn't more than two minutes into the show when Marik said to Malik, "It just isn't right. We should still be in charge of the world."

"Huh? Oh, Marik, are you still on that?" He groaned, "C'mon, how many times do I have to tell you? It's over. Done with. Gone."

"… It's all your fault, you know." Marik said coldly, "It was your idea to have us drink all that Tequila and stuff. We were so drunk, we couldn't realize that Yami and Yugi had come and robbed us."

"What! Don't blame it all on me! You said we should celebrate."

"I said celebrate, not get so wasted that we couldn't see straight. That was probably that worse night of my life. I woke up with a killer headache and you wouldn't stop complaining about transsexual aliens coming and stealing your stupid beanie baby collection!"

Malik rolled his eyes and said no more. Marik turned his attention away from the T.V, pulled out a pen and began working on his Marble again. Malik sighed, "You know… I think we should stop trying to take over the world."

"What?" Marik stopped writing, "What are you talking about?"

"Incase you haven't noticed, Marik, our plans don't turn out exactly marvelous. Maybe we should stop and get a job at the Seven Eleven or something."

"Hey! Hey, hey, hey, hey! Don't you quit on me! So we've had a few minor set backs. It doesn't matter. Every time we try, we get closer and closer to reaching our goal. Doesn't that say something to you?"

"… No, not really."

"C'mon, it's just like that old saying. Try, try again 'till you can't try no more. And we're still alive, so we can try!"

"But wouldn't a real job be better, Marik? I mean, no offense, but trying to take over the world doesn't exactly pay the bills. We usually end up having to beat up old ladies for their pocket change."

"So what? That'll do, until we take over permanently. We do have a job, anyway. We're part of the evil society."

Malik scratched his head and frowned, "That's a job?"

"Well, duh! Without evil, good would not exist. It's like ying and yang. Dark and Light. Chocolate and vanilla."

"So, what are you getting at, Marik? Because, I swear, I don't get it."

"What I'm getting at is that our job is keeping the world balanced. If we stopped being bad and taking over the world, chaos would surely take control!"

"Wow… I-I never realized we were that important."

Marik smiled and began writing again, "We are. We are the very essence of evil… and that is a very important job."

THE END…

Her Sweetness: Hi guys and gals. So, how did I do? I hope you've been enjoying this because the Marik and Malik madness just won't stop. My next fanfic is coming soon, and they will surely be the stars.

Meanwhile, just chill out and review. You can wait for my next fic… but you won't be waiting long. 


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